Nothing new happening, no more inquiries. New FAKO (almost no change):

transunion 763
experian 780
equifax 743

I've also done a mini AOR for my father. It seems like from which CRA the CR is pulled from is YMMV. Like for our Citi applications, CR was pulled from TransUnion, rather than OP's Equifax. Here are the pulls for our recent credit applications.

FIRST USA,NA 05/16/2006 Experian

MBNA 05/13/2006 Experian

HSBC NV 05/13/2006 Experian

FIRST USA,NA 05/13/2006 Experian

HSBC NV 05/13/2006 Equifax

AMEX 05/13/2006 Equifax

WASHMTL/PROV 05/13/2006 TransUnion

FIRST USA NA 05/13/2006 TransUnion

DISCOVER FIN 05/13/2006 TransUnion

CITI 05/13/2006 TransUnion

CITI 05/13/2006 TransUnion



jairocon said:jairocon said:Right now the FAKO scores seem to be:
transunion 765
experian 778
equifax 746
(Didn't check these before the applications). True myfico (based on equifax) was 785 on Friday.

Pulled my credit report again.

FAKO scores:
transunion 763
experian 779
equifax 743

FNB OMAHA 05/16/2006 Equifax
HSBC NV 05/15/2006 Experian
PENTAGON 05/15/2006 Equifax
ADVANTA 05/15/2006 Equifax
DISCOVER 05/15/2006 Equifax
FIRST USA 05/15/2006 Equifax
CITI 05/15/2006 Equifax
CITI 05/15/2006 Equifax
FUSA, NA 05/15/2006 Equifax
BAC CON LDG 05/15/2006 TransUnion
GMAC BANK 05/15/2006 TransUnion
WASHMTL/PROV 05/15/2006 TransUnion

Interesting, that there are so few pulls, I did expect more, then again I wasn't too wild during the aor. I don't see MBNA pull, even though when I was requesting the CLI the credit analyst checked my credit report while I was on the phone with him. I don't see AMEX pull, although CLI was granted. My last AMEX pull was on 4/4, which is more than 30 days ago, but it is possible, that they're still using that report. As Dave mentioned, some pulls will spill over to the following days, since I did the aor in the afternoon-evening on a busy Monday. We can see that's true as First National checked one day later. I wonder if I'll get more chase pulls (1 phone application, 1 online application and 4 phone CLI requests). If there are no more chase pulls, then the theory of asking for a CLI at the same time when asking for a new loc from the same lender is really really worth it.

No new credit lines are yet reported though. I wonder how long it takes for the new lines to report. Too bad this 3-in-1 credit pull trial expires so quickly, it would have been quite interesting to observe the timeline.

The distribution of the credit pulls is also interesting - heavily favoring equifax:

Number of pulls:
equifax: 8
transunion: 3
experian: 1

I guess I could have researched more in advance as to which cards would pull which CRAs, but I don't think I could have managed to distribute the new applications so that it would have been more even. However, since experian was pulled only once, perhaps I could still find some new card(s) to apply for, one that would for sure pull experian. I'll look into that today.

jairocon said:Nothing new happening, no more inquiries. New FAKO (almost no change):

transunion 763
experian 780
equifax 743

Again - nothing new. The chase accounts that they removed from my online access as a part of the fraud prevention are not back yet (even though they said it would take 48-72 hours). I'll wait until Monday for them to show up before calling them up again.

New scores:

transunion: 778
experian: 780
equifax: 743

I don't see a reason for the transunion score to make a jump of 15 points in one day. And since truecredit seems to be owned/affilliated with transunion, I guess their score should be the most believable one of these three.

Edit: Actually the sony/chase card now shows in my online chase access and it has $8k CL!

5. sony styles - didn't ask for bt yet - instantly approved $5k
So even though, it has shown instant approval $5,000 - it is actually $8,000. Can't wait to see if I got the chase cash plus card as well. In any case, I should first make a purchase on the sony card before doing a BT, to get that $100 credit.

jairocon said:So even though the application resulted in error after hitting submit on the RBS website, they went ahead and pulled 2!!!

Well, that would jive with my RBS experience over the last week, where when I called, they said I had multiple applications pending (from the explosion). However, I haven't shown any credrep pulls from them yet.

baobao73 said:If I just want to enroll in Penfed membership without applying for their credit card, will they do a hard pull?


Yes, they will.

After I enroll in Pedfed membership and if I apply for a Penfed credit card, will they do another hard pull?

g10ny said:baobao73 said:If I just want to enroll in Penfed membership without applying for their credit card, will they do a hard pull?


Yes, they will.

I apologize for the delay in updating this thread - as I was unexpectedly gone away from home for a while - I didn't even have a chance to keep up with this (that's a no-no when doing an AOR).

So... the results:

1. Penfed - yet to be determined as they asked for financials and I haven't yet sent them in
2. Advanta - approved $10k - $9.8k requested into checking account (in process)
3. Discover for Life - approved $6k - $5.9k requested into CitiBank MC (in process)
4. Chase Cash Plus - approved but had to close one of my other 4 chase cards (they didn't let me have 5 cards). So I closed my youngest chase card (Buy.com) and chase cash plus will receive the $8k CL from the Buy.com card - they took almost a month before they called me to tell me about this, so I have yet to get the actual card.
5. Sony Styles (chase) - approved $8k - haven't requested the BT yet, want to make a purchase first
6. Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards - approved $4.6k - will wait with BT (I have 12 months to take it)
7. ATT Universal Rewards - DENIED - letter was dated 5/17 (2 days after AOR): too many recent credit inquiries
8. Bank of America Power Rewards - approved $7.5k - requested $7.5k BT into my ATT Universal (in process)
9. First National Rewards (FNB Omaha) - DENIED - letter dated 5/27 (12 days after AOR): excessive CRA inquiries
10. HSBC CashBack Rewards - approved $5k - requested $4.75k straight into my checking account (in process)
11. Providian Visa Platinum - approved $5k - $4.5k BT processed to CitiBank Mastercard
12. RBS Platinum MC - approved $15k TWICE!!! - $15k BT to CitiBank requested at time of application, $15k was processed TWICE! Received by CitiBank and cashed out!

Banks:
1. Penfed - opened
2. USAA - opened
3. GMAC - opened
4. Amboy Direct - opened
5. BofA checking - opened

Credit Line increases:
1. ATT Universal - $750 increase
2. CitiBank MC - $0
3. Chase cards: $0, $3k, $4k and $3.5k increases
4. AMEX - $4,5k increase
5. MBNA - $0

So to summarize:
New credit from applications: $76.1k (out of which $10k is business CL)
New credit from CLIs: $15.75k

Total new personal credit: $81,850
Total new business credit: $10,000

Before AOR (as stated in the first post):
Total old personal CL: $62,460
Total old business CL: $13,300

So now my complete total CLs are:
personal: $144,310
business: $23,300

I can say that I am very happy with the way this turned out! I have more than doubled my total personal CL. I have almost doubled my business CL. I haven't gotten huge lines - but with time and consolidations I should cross $20k on some of my accounts. I think that many credit decisions were probably decided based on my highest available CL, which before AOR was $14.1k.

Now I need to quickly utilize this new credit and request the remaining BTs. I was absolutely pleasantly surprised by RBS! The application for that card didn't go through online - it gave me an error! So I submitted it the second time - only to receive the same error. I thought nothing would come from that. And to my surprise - one day my citibank mastercard gets $30k credit. I had no clue where that was coming from - only to find out, that RBS approved both applications separately and processed both BTs! This was the most pleasant surprise of this whole AOR!!!

The only worrysome thing is, that RBS gave me CLs of $15k, processed $15k BTs and with the BT fee my balances now are $15,060 - thus $60 over limit. I was told that it's not a problem, since it was their "fault" - and I won't be charged any over limit fees nor will I be reported anywhere. Still - I worry - and perhaps I should just go ahead and quickly send them money to have that balance under the limit before it closes (Dave?).

Citibank really upset me. Not only did they not increase my CL on my most used card with them, they gave me a measly $4.6k on the new diamond preferred card and denied the att universal. I guess the strategy there will be to perhaps wait 6 months and try to get CLIs and then re-allocate them on the 3 citibank accounts I have before asking for the BT?

I'm not sure if I could ask for CLIs on all the other accounts that got such small lines before asking for the BTs. I don't want any more credit pulls right now, but I want as much BT money as possible

Chase really stunned me. It took them a whole month before they eventually called me to tell me that they will give me the cash plus card, but I would need to close one of the other 4 accounts. So, since I don't use the Buy.com account at all and I wanted the $100 first purchase credit and a 12 month BT, I went for it. Still... a whole month? Perhaps those phone apps are really that slow.

So... I guess now I can breath a little and quickly get the BT money and start managing the lines, so that I won't spook any one of the creditors. I just finished activating all of them and adding them to my yodlee setup.

Some cards sent checks but they don't really specifically mention if these are the promo checks or not. So should I be calling all these new "cards" back and asking for BTs over the phone? I guess I'll have to utilize my citibank accounts for this. I was surprised that they didn't even wink when $30k came onto an account with a $12k CL. They took 7 days to investigate, but they eventually sent the check without asking about anything.

markkundinger said:So wait, you actually got two separate RBS cards? That's nuts.
Yep! Two cards. Two different numbers. Two BTs. Both on the same day. That's why I couldn't figure out why in the world did I get two $15k payments into my citicard on the same day (those BTs showed up before I actually received the cards in the mail).

Am I to assume that you don't have either of the two new Chase cards yet?
No, I got the sony card right away. It was instant-approved and it showed up in my mail within a week.

Here's one trick that might get you cash out of a cit card sooner rather than later. Let's say you get a whopping credit balance. Instead of requesting a credit refund (where they wait to verify funds), it might be slightly quicker to request a BT check to yourself. I think they cut the check in just a couple days instead of 7. Plus, you can request the check for the entire credit balance + a little of your credit limit. I'm not completely sure, but I think it's faster anyway.
Have you tried it with citibank? I have a few "no-fee" citibank offers in my account - so I could possibly do that. Have you done it "just before" the BT money would come in, or "right after" you get that BT money payment posted?

How much total BT do you think you're going to have once you get it all going?
Right now I have $62.45k (partially still processing). I'll ask for close to $30k from chase once I re-allocate the CLs there and eventually I'll ask for about $20-$25k from CitiBank. So the final figure could be around $110k, but I'll quickly pay down to at least 90% util most of these right away.

First, kudos on the thorough update OP. jairocon said:Still - I worry - and perhaps I should just go ahead and quickly send them money to have that balance under the limit before it closes (Dave?).Since you asked, I would most certainly pay down the balance not only so that it's under the limit, but so that it's AT LEAST under 90%.

More generally on this question, jairocon, I am very concerned that you are getting too greedy. You are routinely asking for more than 90% utilization on these balance transfers. And at this point, you can't even be sure when these new lines will report (often the first reporting date isn't 30 days after opening, but much sooner).

You do know that your credit profile has just taken a MAJOR hit. By my count, The average age of your reporting lines has just been more than cut in half. You likely have several new inquiries on each CRA (and indeed had a few apps denied to that alone, even before all the dust settled). And at the rate you're going, you will have at least 50% overall utilization reporting, and 90%+ at as many as half a dozen issuers. Unless this is reduced soon, you will be extremely lucky if you do not experience other "adverse actions" within the next year.

At the very least, why not cut the BTs on those small lines (HSBC, Providian) down to less than 50% utilization, and the other reporting lines to <90% ? You can keep the high utilization on Advanta (since it doesn't report). And I can see keeping the Discover line at just under 90% too, since it's 0% LOB. But if you make these and cut the RBS lines to below 90% (I would do below 50% myself), you're only "leaving" $5-10K on the table. That's just not significant: we're talking cutting your returns by something like $250 tops, and that's if nothing goes wrong. And doing this WILL reduce significantly the chances of having lines cut or closed, especially if you get overall utilization below 50% in the process.

Congrats on getting citi to process the overage BTs. I'm glad you did as we discussed and called them promptly on this. I wouldn't push my luck there though--just because they waived through one "high risk" transaction doesn't mean they'd do the same thing again. Instead, see if you can get PenFed's app approved for some reasonable amount, and then do a no-fee BT there to "launder" the proceeds. Or look to see if you can perform a similar move with another card.

I hope this post doesn't seem like "raining on your parade." I'm genuinely pleased that you had a successful AOR! It's just very easy to let greed overcome prudence in the wake of one's euphoria. I hate to see you unduly jeopardize your results for peanuts--especially when added prudence and 6-12 months worth of patience could position you to get much better limits and do this process again for much higher stakes. FWIW.

DaveHanson said:

Instead, see if you can get PenFed's app approved for some reasonable amount, and then do a no-fee BT there to "launder" the proceeds. Or look to see if you can perform a similar move with another card.

With the PenFed account, do you "launder" the balance through a cash advance with no fee or by some other method?