jdopple said:IB requests that details of the offering not be publically disseminated. The poster is in violation of that agreement.

True enough, I removed the exact language.

However, they say in the offer's text that they encougage customers to tell friends about it - beats me how this corresponds with the confidentiality clause. IMHO it negates it.

As we have said before, types of investments that have higher returns with some risk have been discussed before, in prior threads. read them. There are many ideas in the linked thread I provided. There is no "special investment" for BT money.

These are investment ideas ANYONE can do whether the $$ comes from AppOrAma or BTs or not. RE flips, stocks, cars, eBay, etc etc etc etc etc its all been posted before.

As we have already said, BT money should not be looked at as "special" money to try investing areas...and if ANYTHING it should be the most conservative part of your holdings...but if you want more of a risk/reward factor, just read ideas in past threads.

How do you guys get cash from bt's? Do you just give them your debit card number as the balance you want transferred?

patch96 said:or we can discuss it in this thread right here.no one who offered worthwhile suggestions in past investment threads is likely to take the time to repost here in a thread on BT money

I negged the three posts three above this one only because the issues they raise have been asked and answered pretty exhaustively on other threads. It only dissipates info and wastes energy to repeat them here.

Also in the CC/BT thread is more info about debit card use. This can be very iffy, and has caused problems in a number of cases. Use with care.

OP, you don't need to "fear" a low fico to have a reason to avoid it. I am repeating myself, but it can't be stressed enough that going forward, you WILL get other opportunities with moderate utilization/high scores that you won't get with high utilization/low scores. How valuable will this be for you? Who knows. I do know two things: (1) the longer you are in the game, the more the advantages of auto-limit increases, new offers for high credit folks only, etc. compound, like returns on investments, and (2) for me, that kind of compounding has been extremely valuable.

Good post, Mailman.

The only other thing I'd have to add to this discussion is always keep in mind your exit strategy and factor in the costs of having to use said exit strategy when considering where you invest the BT funds and how much you place into each kind of investment.

Liquidity, accessibility, and penalties for withdrawal are right up there with risk of losses for me when planning for / considering the worst case scenario.

Best of luck to you OP! Let us know what you end up doing and how it ends up turning out.

Good to hear from you mbaker4096. i guess we are seeing who is holding them and who has them "dragging on the ground"

I have got great info from vets. But they are missing the point of this thread. I do NOT need risk management advice. I want to talk about issues - pros and cons - that they obviously don't. Their leaving will not change the quality here. I have ALREADY got some great ideas (that do not involve selling used cars) for non-vets. FWF is ours - all of ours. Noone owns a topic. I don't own this one. They are trying to marshall this. i want to talk about sale-lease backs, IB. i do not need a forum poster giving me "risk advice" Paternalistic people are often control freaks. I respect each man and woman to stand on their own. People are FAR more stronger, smarter, braver, and resiliant than even they believe. I treat them (but for kids) that way,

I am trying to keep the thread on point.

patch96 said:actually , if you read my posts i am not frustrated at all...But then said, if this thread is repeatative, why is davehanson and did you search here. They need to move on and let this thread develop as it will on its own inertia. I am learning alot about FW. These "vets" can move along , go back to their favorite threads. I guess i should start monitoring their threads and neg and comment. Oh wait. I'm above that.And that's not being "frustrated at all"? I'm not sure I'd want to see you when you're ticked off...

And since you yourself brought up the subject of what we "vets" "need" to do, I find it a little puzzling that you'd object to our comments about what you ought to do.

Seriously, though. DYS and I both gave detailed reasons for our reservations and resulting negative ratings. DYS objected not to your desire to move beyond cash and cash equivalents, but to greed as being the driving factor here (by your own admission). And he rightly notes that greed has proven time and again to be a perilous motivator for BT investors, no matter how smart they may be. (BTW, while his emphasis was different, I don't think his conclusion was necessarily inconsistent with Mailman's reasonable observations about careful risk management. Not speaking for DYS, but I don't disagree with Mailman here.) I want to talk about issues - pros and cons - that they obviously don't. Not at all. Rather, DYS and I object to "talk[ing] about issues" that we're ALREADY TALKING ABOUT in other current, developed threads. FWF has ongoing, detailed discussions on both how to gain higher returns at reasonable risk and how to leverage BTs. We also have an ongoing problem with many members posting repetitive threads time and again, making FWF a more scattershot and less helpful forum. So some of us "vets" feel it's important to object when, despite the warnings here against reposts, members insist on retreading freshly covered ground in their own threads. (And once again, I already gave you a shorter version of this reason above.)

By contrast, a thread that referred such already conducted discussions to their proper place, and focused more narrowly instead on, say, "non-cash investment strategies tailored to BT investing", would have real value IMO, and IIRC hasn't really been done here. If you want to take it in this direction, I for one would likely respond very positively.

I'll make one other suggestion along these lines, then get off my soapbox. It would help if you would follow up on questions that you yourself pose in discussion. For example, you asked the following of me directly: FOR ME What if my fico drops 100 points for % utilization per CC ...How will 650 (or 620) vs. 780 change my life? While you could have picked up my thoughts on this in the thread you referenced, I didn't dismiss you with anything like a "read my thread, newbie." Instead, I took the time to give you three short, specific answers. Yet, rather than do me and other readers the courtesy of briefly addressing those answers to your question (even if only to quickly disagree), you instead misleadingly dismissed them as being reducible to "fear" of a "low fico." Similarly, you commented to me that it took a while to make sense of my own BT strategy. I replied by asking you for any thoughts as to how I might make that thread less trying. You simply ignored this question. If you had no ideas, a simple "sorry, I don't see any offhand" would be appreciated.

Now these aren't big deals, and I'm hardly bent out of shape about them. But by NOT doing these things--AND by going going on about how much you've gleaned from all of us, publicly and in PMs--you create the impression of someone who's only too happy to take from FW, but is less interested in giving back. Hopefully that impression will change as you post more. You seem like a smart and interesting investor, and I bet that more reciprocal contributions from you would get an enthusiastic reaction. FWIW.