Objective: ---------- I want to do a major app-o-rama (AOR) to take advantage of the most possible BT offers that I can. I have read quite a number of posts here at FWF, I researched the cards that I want to apply for. I have a very good credit, I don't have any plans to apply for any loans in the close future (3-5 years). I'm ok trashing my FICO for a while. However, I don't want to raise too many flags - so this will also require keeping the utilization to 90 or 50 percent. And finally, I will do these on Monday 5/15 (as the $100 chase offers expires then).
Current cards: -------------- AM.EX Platinum Cash Rebate Card opened 2001, CL $500* *CL used to be $3,000 but was decreased when I opened the business card AM.EX Platinum Business Premium Cash Reb opened 04/2006, CL 13,300 AT&T Universal Platinum MC opened 1999, CL $8,050 Chase Regular Visa opened 1998, CL $3,000 Chase Platinum Visa opened 2001, CL $7,100 Chase Ama.zon Visa opened 2004, CL $8,000 Chase Buycom Visa opened 2005, CL $4,400 Citi Dividend Platinum Select MC opened 2001, CL $11,810 Discover Platinum opened 2001, CL $5,500 MBNA Platinum Plus MC opened 2000, CL $14,100
Total personal CL: $62,460 Total business CL: $13,300
I also have 6 store cards (Sears, Kohls...) opened 1998-2002 with a total CL: $6,360
Paid off car loan for $15,600 between 1999-2004. No current loans.
I have never been late on any payments. I haven't done a BT since 2003, when I did my first one and didn't read the terms properly so it cost me much more. I always pay balances in full and I don't have many expenses.
My current credit debt is: $219.80 (0.35% utilization).
My FICO score from Equifax is 785 as of May 12, 2006 (provided by myFICO.com). My credit history is 9 years old.
Cards to apply for: ------------------- 1. Advanta BusinessCard 0% APR for 15 months: 0% for the first 15 billing cycles from the date your account is opened, BT fee 3% ($5 min, $50 max), 5% CashBack gas, office, util, comp, phones, internet, 1% all else, $50 cash reward from cardoffers.com! www.advanta.com
2. Discover Platinum Got a mail offer to do a BT for life, 0% till Jan 2007, then min 2 transactions to keep the offer. BT fee 3% (min $5 max $50). Reply by 5/30!
3. Sony Styles $100 credit after first purchase, 0% for 12 months, it's a Chase card. 0% fixed APR for the first 12 billing cycles following the opening of your account. BT fee 3% (min $5 max $75). www.SonyStyle.com
4. Chase Cash Plus Rewards $100 credit after first purchase, 5% gas, grocery, gas CashBack, 1% other Cash Back. BT 0% for 12 months, BT fee 3% ($5 min, $75 max). Promo Code 2YL expires 5/15! 1-888-787-0329
5. Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card $100 gift card after first purchase (10,000 thank you points), 0% BT for 12 months*, no fee! https://www.citibank.com/us/cards/index.jsp
6. ATT Universal Rewards $100 gift card after first purchase (10,000 thank you points), 0% BT for 12 months*, no fee! http://www.universalcard.com
7. First National Rewards Advantage Platinum Edition Visa Card 1 reward point for every $1, 1,000 points after first purchase. BT 0% for 6 months, no fee! http://www.firstnational.com/fnb/personal/cardproducts/creditcards/rewardsadvantage.asp
8. HSBC Cash Back Rewards MasterCard 1% full CashBack, BT 0% for 12 months, BT fee 3% ($5 min, $50 max) possibly no fee. http://www.us.hsbc.com/1/2/3/personal/cards
9. Providian Visa Platinum BT 0% for 12 months, BT fee 3% ($5 min, $75 max), free credit scores
10. The RBS Platinum MasterCard BT 0% for 10 months, BT fee 3% ($5 min, $60 max)
11. Bank of America Power Rewards Visa Platinum (check if pre-approved!) $25 gift card, 0% BT for 6 months, BT fee 3% (min $10, no max!) https://preapproved.bankofamerica.com/SelfInquiry.aspx
12. Pulaski Bank Gold Visa BT 0% for 6 months, no fee, $40 from cardoffers.com
Considering also: ----------------- 1. Penfed CC Rewards (but since I'm not a penfed member yet, I might forego this one)
Questions to figure out: ------------------------ 1. In which order to apply for these cards? 2. If requesting BTs, which of my low/zero balance current cards to use to transfer these BTs to? Ask for checks? Or direct ACH into my checking accounts? 3. Ask for BTs right away on the application forms or wait to re-allocate lines after approval to get more bang? 4. How much to ask for on BTs? Limit myself to BTs under $10k (I think I read somewhere that if you deposit more than $10k into your bank it raises some flags). 5. Is this too much for the first app-o-rama? Should I scale down? Or too little - thus add more cards? There are definitely more citi and chase offers that are appealing, but I already have 4 chase cards and 2 citi (citi+universal) cards. 6. I still don't have any CapitalOne card, I wanted to venture into their market as well, but they don't have any enticing offers right now. 7. I would have taken another MBNA card (already have one) but their BT offers don't seem to have a maximum fee capped. 8. Still thinking of perhaps adding some frequent miles cards (I already had Delta AMEX, but maybe united or aa would be a nice addition).
Thank you for your comments and advice. I will be reading CC BT investment thread during the weekend, to finalize my strategies and incorporate your advice as well.
EDIT: updated the title to note that the aor is now officially over. I will enter the results as they arrive.
EDIT 6/28/2007 -> please see the new thread for AOR 2.0 LINK
I am in the middle of one also...I would also suggest a mbna card. There is an offer for the jets card with ipod..if you are interested. I also did discover card from card offers.com....to get the 40-50 buck bonus. I dont think there is the "for life" part...just the 0% for 12 months.
Also I would suggest applying for a couple of citi bus. cards (100 buck bonus for those). Check out their website.
I missed the 250 bonus on AMEX unless we get an offer in the mail. If anybody has a suggestion for an AMEX card to add?
maddybeagle said: I am in the middle of one also...I would also suggest a mbna card. There is an offer for the jets card with ipod..if you are interested. I also did discover card from card offers.com....to get the 40-50 buck bonus. I dont think there is the "for life" part...just the 0% for 12 months.
Also I would suggest applying for a couple of citi bus. cards (100 buck bonus for those). Check out their website.
I missed the 250 bonus on AMEX unless we get an offer in the mail. If anybody has a suggestion for an AMEX card to add?
---I would go with the best offers first.
Maddybeagle, do you have your AOR thread somewhere on FWF?
x43b
Senior Member
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 9:03a
Looks like you've done your quite a bit of research. I wish you the best of luck.
Based on the chatter on this website it seems you might have a hard time with #4 but it is probably worth a shot and worst case you get a different card from Chase that also has 0% apr for 12 months (just no 5% Cash Back).
Also I'm sure you're planning on doing this, but when you get your Chase cards it seems time to reallocate/consolidate. $100 sign up bonuses are nice but if you could combine limits to get a $10K limit 0% card you could make 5 times that in one shot.
mhesidence
Dismembered Member
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 9:19a
Suggestion go thru card offers for the AT&T Universeal rewards card and get an extra $40.
Citi Premier Pass Elite instead of Diamond 15000 points ($150) instead of $100 plus $40 thru card offers. There is an annual fee, so once you get your points swich the card to a non-annual fee type. In my experience the Premier Pass cards get higher credit limits than Diamond or Dividend.
FYI, HSBC and Providian gave poor credit lines not worth the BT fee to use. YMMV.
Once I used the BoA pre-approval form they started to send me no fee BT offers in the mail, same for Capital One.
s0meguy
Member
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 12:57p
I noticed that all of your current credit lines are pretty small. What is the point of doing an AOR when you are likely to be given similar (or smaller) credit lines? It almost doesnt seem worth it if they are not going to give you larger ($15,000+) credit lines. Will you really make much profit from the interest with such small numbers (even if you max out every new card)? I am not trying to give you a hard time, I am just wondering what you are thinking. I would try to combine my current lines to raise current limits before doing an AOR.
demingy
Senior Member
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 1:13p
s0meguy said: I noticed that all of your current credit lines are pretty small. What is the point of doing an AOR when you are likely to be given similar (or smaller) credit lines? It almost doesnt seem worth it if they are not going to give you larger ($15,000+) credit lines. Will you really make much profit from the interest with such small numbers (even if you max out every new card)? I am not trying to give you a hard time, I am just wondering what you are thinking. I would try to combine my current lines to raise current limits before doing an AOR.
I'm not sure I entirely agree. Those credit lines look a little similar to the ones that I had before applying for just two Chase cards (not AOR) just a few months ago and I received both cards with $10K+ lines. A quick CL consolidation gives me just over $20K. My debt was even higher than jairocon's, my score was at least 50 points lower, and I'm sure my reported income was lower as well. I'm not saying that this would guarantee anything, but I don't think it is THAT unlikely that OP could get somewhat high limits, especially if CL's are combined.
Of course this is just my 2 cents based purely on my own (admittedly non-AOR) experience.
You already have 4 Chase cards and want to apply for the 5th one - why not move the Buy.com (most recent) limit to your oldest card, and then close it? That should give you a CL of $7400 on your oldest Chase.
I think Citi Advantage has a 25k miles sign up bonus right now. Might want to think about that.
jairocon
Senior Member - 1K
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 2:18p
Thanks everyone for your input. Please keep it coming!
maddybeagle said: ...there is an offer for the jets card with ipod.. I thought about it, but once again - there is no cap on the BT fee, which makes it a no-go for me at this point. Ipod nano would have been nice, but I'm in this for the BT offers.
x43b said: Also I'm sure you're planning on doing this, but when you get your Chase cards it seems time to reallocate/consolidate. $100 sign up bonuses are nice but if you could combine limits to get a $10K limit 0% card you could make 5 times that in one shot. Thanks x43b. That is precisely what I am planning to do. Get the Chase card and before BT re-allocate all the possible CL into it.
mhesidence said: Suggestion go thru card offers for the AT&T Universeal rewards card and get an extra $40. Citi Premier Pass Elite instead of Diamond 15000 points ($150) instead of $100 plus $40 thru card offers. There is an annual fee, so once you get your points swich the card to a non-annual fee type. In my experience the Premier Pass cards get higher credit limits than Diamond or Dividend. FYI, HSBC and Providian gave poor credit lines not worth the BT fee to use. YMMV. Once I used the BoA pre-approval form they started to send me no fee BT offers in the mail, same for Capital One. mhesidence, thanks for this tip on the citibank premier pass elite, I will give it a thought and read over their info. On the ATT Universal card - I decided that it would be better to go through universal website directly instead of cardoffers, because the deal is better from universal.
I had an old BofA offer for 15 months 0% BT no fee, but it expired in March. I'm hoping the pre-approval form might spit something juicy out.
s0meguy said: I noticed that all of your current credit lines are pretty small. What is the point of doing an AOR when you are likely to be given similar (or smaller) credit lines? It almost doesnt seem worth it if they are not going to give you larger ($15,000+) credit lines. Will you really make much profit from the interest with such small numbers (even if you max out every new card)? I am not trying to give you a hard time, I am just wondering what you are thinking. I would try to combine my current lines to raise current limits before doing an AOR. That is a very valid point. The lines are so small because I haven't made any effort to cultivate them over the last few years. Yet, I don't think it's fruitless to do AOR at this point. Chase lines could be combined, citi lines could be combined. My recent AMEX business was opened with 13.3k. We all have to start somewhere, so this is where I plan to start.
The question is - would it be more beneficial to combine CLs before the AOR (meaning days before the AOR) or would it not make such an impact? I'm planning on combining those lines and reallocating them into the newly approved BT cards to max out the BTs.
SUB said: You already have 4 Chase cards and want to apply for the 5th one - why not move the Buy.com (most recent) limit to your oldest card, and then close it? That should give you a CL of $7400 on your oldest Chase. I do definitely want to move both Buy.com and Amazon lines - but I don't see a point in closing those cards, unless I will get denied by chase for having too many chase cards. Both of the oldest chase cards used to be First Bank before the merger happened. Applying for Buy.com and Amazon was a mistake in retrospect, but I'm not sure it would benefit me too much to close them yet. I need to check the credit issuer faq thread to see the maximum chase cards, that a person can have.
demingy said: s0meguy said: I noticed that all of your current credit lines are pretty small. What is the point of doing an AOR when you are likely to be given similar (or smaller) credit lines? It almost doesnt seem worth it if they are not going to give you larger ($15,000+) credit lines. Will you really make much profit from the interest with such small numbers (even if you max out every new card)? I am not trying to give you a hard time, I am just wondering what you are thinking. I would try to combine my current lines to raise current limits before doing an AOR.
I'm not sure I entirely agree. Those credit lines look a little similar to the ones that I had before applying for just two Chase cards (not AOR) just a few months ago and I received both cards with $10K+ lines. A quick CL consolidation gives me just over $20K. My debt was even higher than jairocon's, my score was at least 50 points lower, and I'm sure my reported income was lower as well. I'm not saying that this would guarantee anything, but I don't think it is THAT unlikely that OP could get somewhat high limits, especially if CL's are combined.
Of course this is just my 2 cents based purely on my own (admittedly non-AOR) experience.
By reallocating your credit to another cc and close that account, doesn't it affect or even lower your credit?
demingy
Senior Member
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 3:51p
Ivanist said: demingy said: s0meguy said: I noticed that all of your current credit lines are pretty small. What is the point of doing an AOR when you are likely to be given similar (or smaller) credit lines? It almost doesnt seem worth it if they are not going to give you larger ($15,000+) credit lines. Will you really make much profit from the interest with such small numbers (even if you max out every new card)? I am not trying to give you a hard time, I am just wondering what you are thinking. I would try to combine my current lines to raise current limits before doing an AOR.
I'm not sure I entirely agree. Those credit lines look a little similar to the ones that I had before applying for just two Chase cards (not AOR) just a few months ago and I received both cards with $10K+ lines. A quick CL consolidation gives me just over $20K. My debt was even higher than jairocon's, my score was at least 50 points lower, and I'm sure my reported income was lower as well. I'm not saying that this would guarantee anything, but I don't think it is THAT unlikely that OP could get somewhat high limits, especially if CL's are combined.
Of course this is just my 2 cents based purely on my own (admittedly non-AOR) experience.
By reallocating your credit to another cc and close that account, doesn't it affect or even lower your credit?
It didn't lower my credit. Of course I just consolidated the two cards almost as soon as I received them, so I never had a card reported as closed, they only reported it as one card. Even if they had originally reported both of them and then closed one, considering they were about the same age there wouldn't have been much of a difference in my average age of accounts.
markkundinger
Senior Member - 2K
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 6:31p
demingy said: Of course I just consolidated the two cards almost as soon as I received them,
Did you get any crap from the card companies about doing that? And what were the two cards? (and which one lived through it?). For instance, doing that with an airline mile card might make you miss out on the miles.
You may want to consider USAirways Mastercard issued by Juniper/Barclays. The BT rate is 0% for 6 months, with a $100 max fee and . I applied for one as an afterthought in my own AOR, and got a $30k CL. You also get a bunch of USAir miles. More details at http://www.lotsmoremiles.com/
Also suggest you look at CapitalOne business card (0% BT 12 months, no fee).
hair
Greedy Member
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 9:36p
A few points:
Why do you want a Capital One card? They seem to like hitting all 3 CRA's with inquiries, and then once you get the card they don't report your credit limit, only high balance. In general, low CL, and not much CLI. Only way to go for it is if you put a sizable BT on the application, and maybe go for a business card variety since the CL won't appear on your personal report.
Use your current & any new Citi cards to your advantage with the BT check to self requests (even if it's no-fee, since you'll be paying it off within a matter of days with other BT).
Maybe consider moving some of your AMEX business CL to your personal before the statement closes so other issuers will see a higher line there.
And as others suggested, consolidate your Chase cards where possible keeping the oldest one(s).
Assuming you do have a business, keep a look out for more business offers. I get pre-approvals in the mail all the time with 0% offers and have good luck getting high CL's on new cards this way.
catonis
Happy Member
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 9:41p
Regarding Capital One, when I recently applied for my first card with them, they gave me 30K CL with 0%. This is my highest Cl, so YMMV with them.
inda
Ancient Member
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 10:05p
Why some many bank accounts?
bfit01
Ancient Member
posted: May. 12, 2006 @ 10:37p
I would definately try to consolidate lines BEFORE your AOR. IME, many limits are based on the highest limit already showing. Once I had worked my way up to 15K with Discover (over a long period), every other card gave me the exact same limit as Discover.
mbaker4096
Senior Member - 1K
posted: May. 13, 2006 @ 1:40a
jairocon said: maddybeagle said: ...there is an offer for the jets card with ipod..I thought about it, but once again - there is no cap on the BT fee, which makes it a no-go for me at this point. Ipod nano would have been nice, but I'm in this for the BT offers. Might as well apply for it after applying for the MBNA card you really want. I have no trouble believing they'd give you both cards without too much effort and you don't have to do a BT on the Jets card...just reallocate any credit they grant you there back to the card with the capped limit and do a BT request for the full amount.
mbaker4096
Senior Member - 1K
posted: May. 13, 2006 @ 2:12a
Ivanist said: By reallocating your credit to another cc and close that account, doesn't it affect or even lower your credit?You mean lower your credit line? Nah, just the opposite.
You mean lower your credit score? Yeah, possibly, if you're foolish and consolidate an older account into a newer one.
Good job laying out your situation OP. However, it isn't entirely clear what your goals are...is it just getting as much 0% money for as long as possible?
A few quick thoughts:
-Most important: you should apply for credit line increases during the same AOR in which you apply for new cards. Given your good credit and low line sizes, you'll likely get a few sizable line increases, with very little additional cost to your credit score. Those can then be reallocated to cards with great offers.
-You definitely want Penfed. With your score, and if you can report decent income (they won't generally hassle you with verification if your score is good), you'll get as high as $30K from them alone. And you can get 1.25% flat Cash Back, and do a 4.99% for life BT with no fees should you chose to. Even if you don't qualify for free membership, it's $20, one time. Many other benefits too. Anyone serious about playing CC games should get this card.
-Don't worry about requesting more than $10K balance transfers. Banks generally won't worry if they're coming in to you, from cards in your name. $25k is a good bet.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
hlari
New Member
posted: May. 13, 2006 @ 12:33p
If an offer has BT fees, is it still a good idea to request a large BT when applying?
I remember another FWer recommending not doing this because one issuer gave them a small line but still charged the BT fee.
jupiterman
Member
posted: May. 13, 2006 @ 1:30p
Wait until after you get the limit to request the bt.
DaveHanson said: -You definitely want Penfed. With your score, and if you can report decent income (they won't generally hassle you with verification if your score is good), you'll get as high as $30K from them alone. And you can get 1.25% flat Cash Back, and do a 4.99% for life BT with no fees should you chose to. Even if you don't qualify for free membership, it's $20, one time. Many other benefits too. Anyone serious about playing CC games should get this card.
If one's objective in the 0% BT game is to invest the free money provided, I think it is currently hard to find a risk-free investment that will yield significantly more than 4.99%, at least if you limit yourself to durations of 12 mo or less. I could be missing something. Your friend, tuphat.
jairocon
Senior Member - 1K
posted: May. 13, 2006 @ 4:45p
Thank you for all the great comments so far. Hopefully, I can address them in one post.
hair said: Why do you want a Capital One card? They seem to like hitting all 3 CRA's with inquiries, and then once you get the card they don't report your credit limit, only high balance. In general, low CL, and not much CLI. Only way to go for it is if you put a sizable BT on the application, and maybe go for a business card variety since the CL won't appear on your personal report. This is an interesting point. I have also read somewhere else, that CapOne doesn't report the CL and thus would show 100% utilization. My reasoning was to get a foot in with as many new credit lenders as I can (since right now I am only with citi, chase, AMEX and discover). However, as there were no good offers from CapOne - I haven't picked any card from them yet. I will think about the business card.
hair said: Use your current & any new Citi cards to your advantage with the BT check to self requests (even if it's no-fee, since you'll be paying it off within a matter of days with other BT). This is definitely what I think of doing. I actually have no fee offers in both my citi and universal cards, and so for the AOR BT offers I will definitely send them to citi to first get credit balance checks and later take also a BT check from citi to create negative balance and do another BT into these accounts to cover it.
hair said: Maybe consider moving some of your AMEX business CL to your personal before the statement closes so other issuers will see a higher line there. This, I was not so sure about doing. Is it better for new credit inquiries to show overall lower amount of credit that is currently extended to me, or is it better for new inquirers to see that I have a number of cards with higher credit limits? If, I am to do the AOR on Monday, then it's too late for this right now. Unless there is enough benefit in doing this, in which case I would postpone the AOR. (Right now 5/15 is my deadline because the chase offer expires 5/15)
inda said: Why some many bank accounts? I am opening those bank accounts, because they require hard pulls. I have been holding off on opening these precisely because of the hard pulls and I figured I might as well do it while doing AOR. (I know USAA doesn't do hard pull - that one I want to have as my life-long bank and haven't opened it just yet).
bfit01 said: I would definately try to consolidate lines BEFORE your AOR. IME, many limits are based on the highest limit already showing. I am really undecided about this one. I definitely agree on the principal of this, yet I don't know if it makes sense just a few days before AOR (it makes sense weeks/months before AOR). Mainly, because as soon as I get the new Chase card, I will move lines from the other chase cards to the new one to get as high a BT as I can. I'm not sure the CSRs will be so willing to move my lines twice (consolidation first, reallocation second) in a span of a few days.
mbaker4096 said: Might as well apply for it after applying for the MBNA card you really want. I have no trouble believing they'd give you both cards without too much effort and you don't have to do a BT on the Jets card...just reallocate any credit they grant you there back to the card with the capped limit and do a BT request for the full amount. I would, but I don't see any MBNA cards right now, that offer a max cap on BTs. I know it's been mentioned that MotleyFool MBNA card has a cap - but when I click on the application, it only shows a minimum of $10 and 3% fee for me. It never shows any max fee. If I can't find an MBNA card with a max cap, then I guess I won't apply for it.
DaveHanson said: it isn't entirely clear what your goals are...is it just getting as much 0% money for as long as possible? Hi Dave, thanks for your input (I was hoping you'd find this thread!). Yes, my goal is as much 0% BT as possible for as long as possible. At the same time, I want to start building up my credit cards for a long-term. Meaning, I want to attain high CL cards with high amount of total credit available to me. I have read your threads very carefully and noticed how you advise on keeping creditors at ease by not going into full utilization mode, perhaps taking a full amount BT but paying it down to 50% before the first statement and so on. I do want to "get" into this "game" of low APR BT money (not necessarily only 0%), but I also want to "stay" in it for as long as possible, with bigger and bigger benefits in the future.
DaveHanson said: -Most important: you should apply for credit line increases during the same AOR in which you apply for new cards. Given your good credit and low line sizes, you'll likely get a few sizable line increases, with very little additional cost to your credit score. Those can then be reallocated to cards with great offers. I thought about it as well. However, should I do this right before the AOR round or right after? I think right after would be safer as the AOR wouldn't see the CLI pulls, then again CLI decisions if using pulls might get spooked by the AOR aftermath on the CRA reports. Not sure what to do yet.
DaveHanson said: -You definitely want Penfed. With your score, and if you can report decent income (they won't generally hassle you with verification if your score is good), you'll get as high as $30K from them alone. And you can get 1.25% flat Cash Back, and do a 4.99% for life BT with no fees should you chose to. Even if you don't qualify for free membership, it's $20, one time. Many other benefits too. Anyone serious about playing CC games should get this card. Thank you for this re-assurance. I was debating penfed, but wasn't 100% sure. I will make it my #1 application for the AOR, and pay the $20 to get in (I don't qualify otherwise). It is a great card to have and the 4.99 for life no fee BT is a super-bonus if ever needed.
DaveHanson said: -Don't worry about requesting more than $10K balance transfers. Banks generally won't worry if they're coming in to you, from cards in your name. $25k is a good bet. Great! I doubt, I'll be lucky enough to pull any $25k checks in this round, but I won't be worrying about the $10k limit anymore.
tuphat said: If one's objective in the 0% BT game is to invest the free money provided, I think it is currently hard to find a risk-free investment that will yield significantly more than 4.99%, at least if you limit yourself to durations of 12 mo or less. I could be missing something. Your friend, tuphat. I think that if you're doing a huge AOR, you might at some point face the problem that you do not have a "destination" for the BT. Many lenders require that you BT into a cc account, but besides citi, I don't think you are "safe" BT-ing anywhere else if there is no need. I read that MBNA, AMEX and Chase as well do not handle well if you overpay and you might risk your accounts there. Thus, I believe the safest bet is to actually create a negative balance for a few days, pay interest and BT into that account. More on these strategies check here.
Thank you everyone for your comments. This is a big decision for me overall, so I am trying to be as careful as possible and I'm hoping to have all the bases covered.
davef139
Senior Member - 3K
posted: May. 13, 2006 @ 10:29p
jairocon said: I think that if you're doing a huge AOR, you might at some point face the problem that you do not have a "destination" for the BT. Many lenders require that you BT into a cc account, but besides citi, I don't think you are "safe" BT-ing anywhere else if there is no need. I read that MBNA, AMEX and Chase as well do not handle well if you overpay and you might risk your accounts there. Thus, I believe the safest bet is to actually create a negative balance for a few days, pay interest and BT into that account. More on these strategies check here.
Thank you everyone for your comments. This is a big decision for me overall, so I am trying to be as careful as possible and I'm hoping to have all the bases covered.
Will you post which only allow BT to other creditors? Im off to search to see if theres a thread already or which will offer conveince checks and so forth..
The problem with the bank accounts resides not in the credit report, but in the ChexSystems, who won't let you open more than, say, 4 checking/savings accounts in any period of 4 months.
Penfed is a must have, better than the HSBC.
I won't bother with that BofA.
Dump the Capital One.
and... Good luck on this one!
mbaker4096
Senior Member - 1K
posted: May. 14, 2006 @ 1:58a
g10ny said: The problem with the bank accounts resides not in the credit report, but in the ChexSystems, who won't let you open more than, say, 4 checking/savings accounts in any period of 4 months.I've done considerably more than that in the space of 1-2 weeks. Believe 8 in one week is my personal best.
jairocon
Senior Member - 1K
posted: May. 14, 2006 @ 10:51a
mbaker4096 said: g10ny said: The problem with the bank accounts resides not in the credit report, but in the ChexSystems, who won't let you open more than, say, 4 checking/savings accounts in any period of 4 months.I've done considerably more than that in the space of 1-2 weeks. Believe 8 in one week is my personal best.
Yes, indeed - I'm aware about the chexsystem limits. Then again, some banks perform a cra pull as a part of their verification process, thus I thought I might as well do all the damage in one day.
jairocon
Senior Member - 1K
posted: May. 14, 2006 @ 10:54a
davef139 said: jairocon said: I think that if you're doing a huge AOR, you might at some point face the problem that you do not have a "destination" for the BT. Many lenders require that you BT into a cc account, but besides citi, I don't think you are "safe" BT-ing anywhere else if there is no need. I read that MBNA, AMEX and Chase as well do not handle well if you overpay and you might risk your accounts there. Thus, I believe the safest bet is to actually create a negative balance for a few days, pay interest and BT into that account. More on these strategies check here.
Thank you everyone for your comments. This is a big decision for me overall, so I am trying to be as careful as possible and I'm hoping to have all the bases covered.
Will you post which only allow BT to other creditors? Im off to search to see if theres a thread already or which will offer conveince checks and so forth..
As Dave said, make sure you also ask for CL increases on all your existing cards. I noticed a lot of your 0% card offers involved capped fees, like 3% max $50. Although I think that requesting a big BT with your application helps you get a big CL and helps your acceptance odds, I would be reluctant to request BTs on cards with these BT fees. I knew a friend with good credit and similar existing CLs who asked for a ~$10K BT with one application, got approved for a useless $500 BT and CL, and got charged $15 (3%) for the privilege. Something to be careful of. At least with no fee offers like Citi, you can ask for big BT's without this risk.
Thank you for the kind words, jairocon. I'm delighted that you've thought this through carefully, particularly what it might take to make this viable for the long haul and to minimize the risks you undertake. I'm sorry I didn't get to reply earlier, given that your AOR is set for tomorrow. You said: I think that if you're doing a huge AOR, you might at some point face the problem that you do not have a "destination" for the BT. Many lenders require that you BT into a cc account, but besides citi, I don't think you are "safe" BT-ing anywhere else if there is no need. I read that MBNA, AMEX and Chase as well do not handle well if you overpay and you might risk your accounts there. Thus, I believe the safest bet is to actually create a negative balance for a few days, pay interest and BT into that account.Right on. And 4.99% with no fees is an excellent way to do this. (even their regular 10% with no fees cash advance rate isn't bad, if you don't have ANY viable "target" account to send the PF Visa BT to.)
To address your follow-up: you should do the line increase requests during the same day (ideally same hour ) that you do the requests for new lines. Often, more than one pull on the same day by the same issuer is only counted once. And this will maximize your odds for sucess on both ends.
Actually there are no hard pulls for HSBC, USAA, and Amboy bank accounts. So you are only looking at hard pulls on Citibank, GMAC, and BofA. I'd definitely put those off till last after you apply for all the credit cards so those inquiries don't show up when applying for the cards which will be much more important. But definitely do same day as your credit cards. And on the Citibank bank accounts I was able to apply on the phone for checking(w/ code for $200 in bonuses) and e-savings at the same time, they had to do 2 seperate applications but at least only 1 hard inquiry was done.
Yeah, ChexSystems probably won't be a problem with too many new accounts because I've basically signed up for that same amount of bank accounts in a very short time period too with no issues(also ING and Wamu but not BofA...all the rest the same as yours).
agent099
Senior Member
posted: May. 15, 2006 @ 3:05a
Ok maybe I am missing something but your total debt is only $219 yet you are applying for 8+ cards with BT limits of $1000 each.
Wouldn't only 1 BT card be requried for a debt amount so small?
jairocon
Senior Member - 1K
posted: May. 15, 2006 @ 1:43p
agent099 said: Ok maybe I am missing something but your total debt is only $219 yet you are applying for 8+ cards with BT limits of $1000 each.
Wouldn't only 1 BT card be requried for a debt amount so small?
I'm applying for BT money not to cover my current "debt" (I have enough of my own money, and I'm not in debt). I'm getting the BT money for the purpose of stashing them in a safe banking vehicle (high yield savings, mma or cd) to essentially make some extra.
Thanks all for your responses, I will be going at it in a few hours. I will definitely keep updating this thread as I'll start getting some results.
jairocon said: I will be going at it in a few hours. I will definitely keep updating this thread as I'll start getting some results.If you haven't already started, you might limit today's apps to chase only, then do all the others EARLY in the day sometime this week (probably Tues-Thurs, ideally).
The reason is that if you do it late on a busy day like Monday, you'll likely have several inquries delayed for a couple of days.
DaveHanson said: ...The reason is that if you do it late on a busy day like Monday, you'll likely have several inquries delayed for a couple of days.
So starting right now would be bad? Are apps all reviewed by humans? I thought most were "instant answer" types of automated application and acceptance?
jairocon
Senior Member - 1K
posted: May. 15, 2006 @ 7:52p
Wow, that was boring and took forever...
In any case - I won't have the results until I get the decisions in mail but I have not been directly denied for anything.
Here's the order of applications and current results:
---new credit--- 1. penfed - asked for 30k - no decision yet 2. advanta - asked for 25k BT - card approved, don't know the CL yet (I actually screwed up the application - I mistyped the "target" credit account for the BT - so I will need to call them - for now my application was approved, but don't know the line yet) 3. discover (for life) - over the phone - didn't ask for bt out right - no decision 4. chase cash plus - over the phone - didn't ask for bt out right - no decision yet 5. sony styles - didn't ask for bt yet - instantly approved $5k 6. citi diamond - didn't ask for bt - no decision yet 7. att universal rewards - didn't ask for bt - no decision yet 8. bank of america - checked if preapproved - I am preapproved for $7.5k, asked for $7.5k BT 9. first national - didn't ask for bt - no decision yet 10. hsbc Cash Back rewards - didn't ask for bt - instantly approved $5k 11. providian - asked for $15k BT - no decision yet 12. rbs platinum - asked for $15k BT - I submitted twice, and twice it gave me an error to call CS, gave up. 13. pulaski bank gold visa - when I saw that they wanted info on someone related to me who's not living with me, I said forget it. Didn't submit.
---new banks--- 1. USAA checking - got membership approval, opened checking 2. gmac mms - opened 3. amboy direct - opened Didn't apply for any more - it was getting tiresome.
---old credit, but CLIs--- att universal 8,050 --> 8,800 no CRA pull citi 11,800 asked for 13,500 - CRA pull, will know in a few days chase (1998) 3,000 asked for 15,000 - CRA pull, will know in a few days chase (2001) 7,000 --> 10,000 - CRA pull, got it chase (2004) 8,000 --> 12,000 - CRA pull, got it chase (2005) 4,400 --> 7,900 - CRA pull, got it AMEX personal 500 asked for 5,000 - CRA pull, will know in a few days MBNA 14,400 talked to credit analyst, CRA pull, since I don't use the account, wouldn't give more. Converted account to another one that would earn points (and the weirdest thing, he told me this old account will remain active until the cc expires in 2008). In essence he might have just doubled my CL with mbna, not sure. The new account should inherit the history of the old one though. discover - didn't ask for CLI, when I was applying for the life of balance card, I was transferred to credit analyst, and he asked me whether I want to close the old account, since I didn't use it for years. I said no, but didn't have a good feeling, so I didn't even ask for CLI on it. Maybe I should have.
So to sum it up. Instantly, I only got $10k of new credit and $7.5k of pre-approved (bofa). With CLIs I made a mistake with my oldest chase for being super greedy. I should have asked for a few thousands but I thought, hey, this is my oldest account, it deserves more (we'll see in a few days). However, chase was quite generous with the other 3 accounts and I got $10.5k total CLI from them ($3k+$4k+$3.5k). I wasn't sure if I should be asking them to pull the CRAs, but I figured might as well. Nobody wanted to do CLIs without the pulls.
Another thing, my ATT Universal account has been sitting dormant for 3+ years now. I asked for retentions and the guy told me that I don't have any retention offers, because I don't use the card. So I asked for a CLI - he offered 8,050-->8,800 without the CRA pull. I agreed. However, I would have been happier, if he offered 0% BT for 12 mo instead.
Anyway, I didn't ask for BTs, because I will do quite a lot of consolidation/re-allocation once the new lines come in and then I'll shoot for the highest possible BTs.
All in all - I think it went ok. Nothing spectacular, but not so terribly disappointing either.
Btw, thanks Dave for the note - by then I was already on my fourth app, and I just figured, might as well do it all in one day. However, as the evening progressed, the hold times were getting longer and longer.
MeBeDealing said: DaveHanson said: ...The reason is that if you do it late on a busy day like Monday, you'll likely have several inquiries delayed for a couple of days.
So starting right now would be bad? Are apps all reviewed by humans? I thought most were "instant answer" types of automated application and acceptance?Many, even most apps IME are reviewed by humans. And an app submitted first thing in the morning has a better chance of being pulled and processed that day, especially mid-week.
I think the best bet for a major credit quest like OPs is to set aside a weekday morning and start by 8-11 EST, and run straight through for a couple of hours, as quickly as possible.
Congrats OP on your successes! Several more to come, I'm sure...thanks for keeping us updated.
I will eventually make a summary post here concerning AOR 1.0, but it might take a while. Thank you all for contributing! I hope to see you all in my 2.0 thread!
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