I've read through the previous threads from the seasoned FW gurus to the newbies, trying to glean as much as I can before embarking on this mission.
My credit is in good shape with no balances other than a mortgage and my goals for this are to take advantage of various bonuses available AND to begin the 0% BT plan.
Experian = 790 prior Experian = 810 after applying for Citi biz card Experian = 790 again
757 after $1730 at 0% on the Home Depot card was reported.
These are the cards I applied and was approved for.
Chase Cash Plus Rewards MasterCard ($100 after first purchase) 3500 CL Chase Marriott Rewards (15,000 pts + 1 free night level 1-4) 10000 CL Chase Sony Card ($100 statement credit) 3500 CL Citi Business Premiere Pass ($150 thankyounetwork pts + $10 cardoffers) 5000 CL Citi Premiere Pass Elite ($150 ty pts+ $40 cardoffers.com - $75 annual fee) Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards AMEX ($100 ty pts) Citi Home Depot (0% no payment due until 5/07) - bought kitchen appliances 10000 CL AMEX Gold - 5,000 pts (=$50 gc for me) AMEXDelta Skymiles Gold (17,500 miles + $40 cardoffers.com) AMEX Business Delta Skymiles Gold (15,000 miles + $75 cardoffers.com) MBNA Jets (free 1gb Jets engraved nano) 8000 CL MBNA Schwab - $50 statement credit 8000 CL
I currently have...
Citibank Diamond Preferred MC Citibank Diamond Preferred MC (combined CL and closed) Citibank Universal ATT Visa Chase Amazon Visa Chase Sony Visa Chase Sony Visa (combined CL and closed) MBNA Star Trek MC MBNA Schwab MBNA Schwab (combined CL and closed) Macy's Visa American Express Gold Rewards Discover Platinum
My mistake previously was not merging lines of credit, hence two Schwabs and Sonys above, however, thanks to comments within this thread I did that before jumping into this app-a-rama.
Thanks to all of you I have learned so much and will continue to do so!
Do I do it before applying for new lines or during?
One of my Citi Diamonds used to be a different card with an annual fee which I changed over to Diamonds. It is the one with my longest credit history. The other two dupes were opened at similar times.
lillazyfats81 said: why do you have many duplicate cards/>?
combine/merge the credit lines of the dupes and keep the older(er) card (for longer history)
do the combined/merged credit BEFORE the app-o-rama.
citi and chase will only allow 3 max cards (only rare occasions they allow 4)
but 4 is the MAX you can have with each card provider. (unless there are rare occassions)
so call them up, tell them you would like to merge credit lines. be sure you keep the card with the longer history.
with you doing this, your FICO might improve, and for future cards, your CL will increase. Lenders will view you have high credit with other companies and will give you a high(er) CL then you have now.
Thanks for the suggestions. I had read that Citi usually maxed at 3, but found it interesting that at one point I had 5 with them. When I refinanced about 18 months ago they (not me) opened two cards in my name, which have since been closed (by me.)
Good point. I'll take a look for one of those, mgdeals!
Thanks also lillazyfats81 for mentioning Mon-Thurs. I had already thought to do a weekday,but hadn't considered skipping a Fri. Definitely worth noting.
mgdeals said: As long as you're doing one of these, I would also apply for a card that gives you monthly access to your credit score, like washington mutual.
mgdeals said: As long as you're doing one of these, I would also apply for a card that gives you monthly access to your credit score, like washington mutual.
There is a Providian Platinum card out there (now owned by Wamu), with 0% BT for 12 Months... that will give you access to Fico (check cardoffers.com.
the only thing I messed up on with my recent mini-apporama was that I had a high balance showing up on my experian report. This is even though I pay my balances in full within a couple days of getting the electronic statement. doh!
in future apporamas, I'm going to make sure that I pay off any CC balances before they report the balance to the credit bureaus
oh, it doesn't seem to get reported for a while so I think it would be worth trying citibank, AMEX, and the other CLI options on their websites to see if they will bump up your current lines before damaging your credit report. As long as you stop before filling out the forms, it shouldn't result in a hard pull.
Thanks for mentioning checking the CLI options. I just checked Citi on my old account and they are willing to give me a $500 increase. Oh whoopydoo.
theman2 said: the only thing I messed up on with my recent mini-apporama was that I had a high balance showing up on my experian report. This is even though I pay my balances in full within a couple days of getting the electronic statement. doh!
in future apporamas, I'm going to make sure that I pay off any CC balances before they report the balance to the credit bureaus
oh, it doesn't seem to get reported for a while so I think it would be worth trying citibank, AMEX, and the other CLI options on their websites to see if they will bump up your current lines before damaging your credit report. As long as you stop before filling out the forms, it shouldn't result in a hard pull.
citibank gave me another $1,250 today, raising my limit on that card to $5050. I didn't even know that CCs can have limits in $50 increments...
I went from 2 cards 6 months ago to 7 cards on my mini-AOR. Many of the new cards had signup rewards. Others had nice benifits (like starwood preferred, I was more interested in 1st year free with BVG). My real motivation is to build up decent credit limits. My oldest card is about 1.5 years old now and having $2k limits was bothering me. As soon as the dust settles from my latest, I will consolidate my lines to combine the limits. In the meantime, it can't hurt to try to get a couple CLIs on each card.
tashayar said: Thanks for mentioning checking the CLI options. I just checked Citi on my old account and they are willing to give me a $500 increase. Oh whoopydoo.
I also track where each cc is pulling my reports. I looked at my past CR's and checked the yahoo creditpulls. Also moved some balances around using MBNA's bill pay (but it sounds like you are already at 0 balances). Also used one of the free credit monitoring services (on trial) to verify balances on the cards before I applied.
Thanks for the suggestions. I just took a closer look using my free trial of myfico, and it shows that I have a balance on a few of my cards. One irks me as I thought I paid it fast enough (as soon as it closed) but guess not and it was reported. Might wait until that shows $0 again before beginning. Good point and thanks for mentioning it.
And yes, you are right, I do keep zero balances and pay things right away.
maddybeagle said: I also track where each cc is pulling my reports. I looked at my past CR's and checked the yahoo creditpulls. Also moved some balances around using MBNA's bill pay (but it sounds like you are already at 0 balances). Also used one of the free credit monitoring services (on trial) to verify balances on the cards before I applied.
Good luck, OP. Thanks for posting what you're planning to do for those of us who are still too chicken to do it.
Joe1690
Senior Member
posted: Apr. 2, 2006 @ 5:01p
Tashayer,
In order for a card to show a zero balance you either have to have spent nothing during that billing cycle or make a payment on the card before the closing date. For instance if your account closes on the 23 April 2006 and you spent $450, if you pay before April 23, 2006 $450 your credit report will show $0 balance but if you pay anytime after the statement is generated like April 24, 2006 then it will show your full balance regardless of the fact that it was paid off. So in effect you will lose all of your grace period plus at least 1 day in order for it to show a $0 balance. Hope this helps.
Yep, Joe is right. You can actually move balances around before the applications so that your reports show less debt. There was a thread on this (but I cant seem to find it) when the cards report to the CRA's. I remember that there was a few like capital one that might report more frequently or different than at closing date.
EricGo
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Apr. 2, 2006 @ 7:04p
Joe1690 said: Tashayer,
In order for a card to show a zero balance you either have to have spent nothing during that billing cycle or make a payment on the card before the closing date. For instance if your account closes on the 23 April 2006 and you spent $450, if you pay before April 23, 2006 $450 your credit report will show $0 balance but if you pay anytime after the statement is generated like April 24, 2006 then it will show your full balance regardless of the fact that it was paid off. So in effect you will lose all of your grace period plus at least 1 day in order for it to show a $0 balance. Hope this helps.This sounds about right, but personaly I would pay electronically thorugh the CC company 3 - 4 days before the statement closes, if my intent was to make sure that a 0 balance was showing at the CR agency.
I cannot imagine that small balances (such as might accrue for day to day use of the card) make much difference on new apps. It is the 4 figure balance transfers you want to clean up before the AOR.
mbaker4096
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Apr. 2, 2006 @ 7:16p
EricGo said: I cannot imagine that small balances (such as might accrue for day to day use of the card) make much difference on new apps. It is the 4 figure balance transfers you want to clean up before the AOR.Agreed.
Thanks Joe and Maddy. The funny part is, it is my Discover which I rarely use, but did it to take advantage of the 5% dental rewards and was only on there 2 weeks. It's all paid now but will wait for the balance to drop off the report. As my income isn't as strong as some others here, the appearance of carrying a $2600 balance wont look favorable, even if I know it was only for a few weeks.
I really appreciate everyone chiming in with suggestions so I can do this right.
if you are looking for $$$$, apply away. But if just 0%, ask for a retention specialist and be honest. i got 0% FOR 6 months on a large credit line that way.
You can skip an inq.
also for those cards that do not have a gift card or statement credit - there are sites - creditcards.com etc that give you cash when approved
also - for gift cards and statement credits be careful where you apply online, even be careful of the links from fw, all sites are not run by the cc companies and these is definitely some funny business going on there -- -for those cards apply by phone to the cc company.
print all application page to PDF and save them, so you can fax CC company something to prove that they've offered a bonus.
IMO you should skip Providian/wamu, it's not a real score, and it's not updated everyday. Plus they give very low CL so the interest from BT can hardly cover the transaction fee (which is not waived).
depending on your total CL with chase, they may want to close some of your existing cards in order to approve you for another one. They may or may not call you about it. It some of your other cards is unused they may just close it and issue you a new one. If they call and ask which cards you want to close in order to get you a new one, you may want to ask them to close 1 or both sony cards, since they are relatively new and not very useful as far as rewards...
Citi may do the same thing, but they are more likely to call, if they don't call they just issue you a new CC with very small CL. Btw, you can call too, it may speed up the process and you may convince them to move CL instead of declining an application.
alexisrios1976
Member
posted: Apr. 3, 2006 @ 1:53p
tashayar said: I've read through the previous threads from the seasoned FW gurus to the newbies, trying to glean as much as I can before embarking on this mission.
My credit is in good shape with no balances other than a mortgage and my goals for this are to take advantage of various bonuses available AND to begin the 0% BT plan.
These are the cards I am planning on applying for.
Chase Cash Plus Rewards MasterCard ($100 after first purchase) Citi Premiere Pass Elite ($150 pts + $40 cardoffers.com) AMEX Business Good Rewards Card - $250 statement credit AMEX Platinum Business Premium Cash Rewards Card - $250 statement credit Schwab - 10,000 bonus pts
I currently have...
Citibank Diamond Preferred MC Citibank Diamond Preferred MC Citibank Universal ATT Visa Chase Amazon Visa Chase Sony Visa Chase Sony Visa MBNA Star Trek MC MBNA Schwab MBNA Schwab Macy's Visa American Express Gold Rewards Discover Platinum
My mistake previously was not merging lines of credit, hence two Schwabs and Sonys above.
Are there any cards which I should consider for their value? I was considering the Gold DeltaAMEX card as with that it would give me enough for 1 ticket, however, I didn't want to potentially lose out on the biz cards each offering the $250 credit which was more important.
Once I begin the process, I'll add more specifics in order to help others who may be considering something similar.
Thanks to all of you I have learned so much and will continue to do so!
My advice is to delay a few months to begin an AOR. As the forum members already said consider combining credit limits for those duplicates accounts , keeping open the oldest one. Then proceed to move their balances to the largest credit line account (and if you can pay it). And finally , wait until these changes appears in your credit report. Also check this site : Who gave me credit to know which CRA are reviewing.
Thanks for your suggestion. I think I will delay a bit. However, I think you misunderstood, as I carry no balances. I pay everything off not just on time, but early each month.
I will merge duplicate cards and wait for my recent medical payment to drop off.
Thanks everyone for the advice and if there are any other cards, or tidbits missing, please add to this.
alexisrios1976 said: My advice is to delay a few months to begin an AOR. As the forum members already said consider combining credit limits for those duplicates accounts , keeping open the oldest one. Then proceed to move their balances to the largest credit line account (and if you can pay it). And finally , wait until these changes appears in your credit report. Also check this site : Who gave me credit to know which CRA are reviewing.
alexisrios1976
Member
posted: Apr. 4, 2006 @ 11:55a
tashayar said: Thanks for your suggestion. I think I will delay a bit. However, I think you misunderstood, as I carry no balances. I pay everything off not just on time, but early each month.
I will merge duplicate cards and wait for my recent medical payment to drop off.
Thanks everyone for the advice and if there are any other cards, or tidbits missing, please add to this.
alexisrios1976 said: My advice is to delay a few months to begin an AOR. As the forum members already said consider combining credit limits for those duplicates accounts , keeping open the oldest one. Then proceed to move their balances to the largest credit line account (and if you can pay it). And finally , wait until these changes appears in your credit report. Also check this site : Who gave me credit to know which CRA are reviewing. my excuses for that misunderstood statement . You can also try for Bank of America credit cards too.
Thanks. BoA actually just took over MBNA and I now have just two cards there (after some combining of CL)
alexisrios1976 said: my excuses for that misunderstood statement . You can also try for Bank of America credit cards too.
alexisrios1976
Member
posted: Apr. 5, 2006 @ 12:56p
tashayar said: Thanks. BoA actually just took over MBNA and I now have just two cards there (after some combining of CL)
alexisrios1976 said: my excuses for that misunderstood statement . You can also try for Bank of America credit cards too.Right now ,BoA and MBNA is not merged yet , so you can apply for BoA credit cards before the merger is completed. Also try HSBC too.
Well, I did it, applied and was approved for everything. To date my FICO according to Experian has gone from 790 - 810 - 790.
While mid app-a-rama a few cards came up which I hadn't initially considered but I jumped anyway, including the MBNA nano offer.
MBNA has been the most generous with me in terms of CL, while Citi and Chase have been lagging behind. Citi and MBNA have sent me letters offering to reallocate my CL which I will do to take better advantage of 0% BT. I'll update the initial post with some more details.
Today I received the 10,000 thank you pts for my Citi AMEX card.
Also, an inquiry for my third AMEX card showed and just now one for my last Citi. Fico dropped down 12 pts.
According to myfico it is currently 778.
duna
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Jun. 5, 2006 @ 8:02p
How does CL consolidation or moving arounf effect FICO and CR????: it would seem that on the short term it is a negative simply from the fresh activity.
markkundinger
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jun. 5, 2006 @ 10:59p
tashayar said: According to myfico it is currently 778.
That's still a pretty heroic FICO. Have you started doing any big BTs? Are you planning to?
I am going to switch around some CL with Citi for sure and still thinking about Chase and MBNA. Then I am going to BT with Citi definitely. Was just away on vacation and had a few other things going on and wasn't set up to follow through with all of that yet.
It took time for me to use all of the cards at least once and then make the payments. Most of them I haven't even gotten the first statements yet, but I wanted to speed up my rewards. It seemed to work with Schwab and Citi.
BTW, just checked Schwab and my $50 statement credit has posted. Yeah!
markkundinger said: tashayar said: According to myfico it is currently 778.
That's still a pretty heroic FICO. Have you started doing any big BTs? Are you planning to?
My app-a-rama began on 4/29 with the Home Depot store card and lasted 12 days.
Here are the perks I have received so far...
Chase Cash Plus Rewards MasterCard ($100 after first purchase) Chase Marriott Rewards (15,000 pts + 1 free night level 1-4) Citi Business Premiere Pass ($150 thankyounetwork pts) Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards AMEX ($100 ty pts) MBNA Schwab - $50 statement credit
Have not yet received...
Chase Sony Card ($100 statement credit) Citi Premiere Pass Elite ($150 ty pts) AMEXDelta Skymiles Gold (17,500 miles) AMEX Business Delta Skymiles Gold (15,000 miles) MBNA Jets (free 1gb Jets engraved nano) AMEX Gold Rewards(5,000 pts)
duna
Senior Member - 1K
posted: Jun. 9, 2006 @ 11:42p
tashayar: for 12 days the various cc companies did not pick up on all this activity?? said: My app-a-rama began on 4/29 with the Home Depot store card and lasted 12 days.
Here are the perks I have received so far...
Chase Cash Plus Rewards MasterCard ($100 after first purchase) Chase Marriott Rewards (15,000 pts + 1 free night level 1-4) Citi Business Premiere Pass ($150 thankyounetwork pts) Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards AMEX ($100 ty pts) MBNA Schwab - $50 statement credit
Have not yet received...
Chase Sony Card ($100 statement credit) Citi Premiere Pass Elite ($150 ty pts) AMEXDelta Skymiles Gold (17,500 miles) AMEX Business Delta Skymiles Gold (15,000 miles) MBNA Jets (free 1gb Jets engraved nano) AMEX Gold Rewards(5,000 pts)
The first hit was on 5/2 and that was for the Citi biz card. It boosted my score 20 pts. The next change didn't happen until 5/11 when it then dropped those same 20 pts. Slowly the other accounts have been dinging my score.
As of 6/8 it is at 772.
This was my first app-a-rama and most of those cc's were actually applied for within a few days. Towards the end of the 12 days I added a few cards I hadn't considered earlier, like another Schwab and Chase.
duna said: tashayar: for 12 days the various cc companies did not pick up on all this activity?? said: My app-a-rama began on 4/29 with the Home Depot store card and lasted 12 days.
Well, they did indeed close the Universal card which is my OLDEST card I have <sigh>. I will appeal in writing but wont hold my breath.
According to the CSR, the Professional card is a personal card and not a biz one and that is why closed a personal account.
On a more positive note, my online CL request to increase a card which I have had about 14 years to 20K was approved. AND, it was a MBNA card, now BOA, and because of the change in status, BOA sent me some nice 0% BT checks for this account. First time I have received a 0% offer on an OLD card. Going to call up and shift around some lines so I can BT 20K to my e-savings account.
Just yesterday the $250 from the AMEX platinum cash card posted to my account, Sweet!
Still waiting on the $150 credit from Sony and 5000 pts from AMEX for the Biz Gold rewards after first purchase.
So far my FICO has remained the same but we'll see what happens when I BT another $20K.
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