markkundinger said:Is this the app-junkie's equivalent of waking up in a strange bed after going on a bender and blacking out? Do I need to check myself into some sort of 12-step program?Yep. Welcome to the club.

ting-a-ling!

Chase just popped up with the Sony card too! ($4k limit) So, that's all of the Chase cards (three of them) approved, I'm surprised.

So, my plan is to call chase, try to combine most of the credit from my cards (including my long-time with the big limit) into one of the new ones, and then try to do the mother of all BT's (to save on BT fees, of course). Does that make sense?

Also, my Truecredit FAKOs right now:
TU 755, Exp 762, Equ 746

(many new accounts appearing, but not BT's yet.)

AFAIK Chase does not allow new open account to be consolidated with the others. You have to wait at least 6 months. I could be wrong. Please keep me posted as I recently also applied for the Chase card. Instantly approved for $4K limit. Kinda disappointed as my lowest CL on a card is $5K. I expected Chase Sony would give me more. Some people experienced the CL of their Chase Sony is more than what was instantly approved when Chase actually issue the cards and mail them out. Hope I am on the same boat too. Now my combined credit limit also reaches to another milestone and passes $100K! Combined with business credit cards, I now have $160K CL. If including business line of credit, the total is $200K!!

markkundinger said:ting-a-ling!

Chase just popped up with the Sony card too! ($4k limit) So, that's all of the Chase cards (three of them) approved, I'm surprised.

So, my plan is to call chase, try to combine most of the credit from my cards (including my long-time with the big limit) into one of the new ones, and then try to do the mother of all BT's (to save on BT fees, of course). Does that make sense?

Also, my Truecredit FAKOs right now:
TU 755, Exp 762, Equ 746

(many new accounts appearing, but not BT's yet.)

Congrats, Mark, for your accomplishments here.
There's one question I would ask, not being sure if you already put it here: what was the annual income you declared in this campaign ?

g10ny said:Congrats, Mark, for your accomplishments here.
what was the annual income you declared in this campaign ?

That's a good question that I forgot to mention. I'm declaring $52k annually (which coincidentally happened to be my income last year). I think the combination of a good credit score with a non-big household income leads to the phenomenon I've seen of lots of accepted applications, but with moderately small credit limits.

I doubt that any of the applicatiosn had an income verification step, but I still think it would be unwise to claim I made $100k a year.

Oh, and dupon, regarding the fidelity bonus, you said you had an IRA? Check out the links from the original Fidelity thread:

- The UAL miles is for a new, brokerage, non-IRA Fidelity account. If you don't have one of those yet I'd give it a shot.
- The cash is for a brokerage, non-IRA account, but will even work for existing accounts if you deposit $10k.

So if all you have is the IRA, and you have $10k sloshing around, I'd go for it.

g10ny said:dreaded financial review

Good timing, I think I'm finally going to test it.

Today, I got some more mail:

- a PIN number for a Citibank ATM card I don't have yet.
- the AMEX Hilton card, which I prompty activated and made a 1 cent purchase on.
- the Chase Sony card, which I activated, and made a 1 cent purchase. While on the phone, the CSR in Bangalore was pushing for a BT. I asked if he said he could reallocate credit lines, and he said no, but kept pushing for the BT. I held off.

Then, I called my the service number on the Chase Rewards MC, and spoke to my new favorite CSR, Becky. She said that reallocating credit lines was no problem, and after some digging, we robbed $3600 from the Sony card (leaving it at $400), $18000 from my longstanding Chase Visa (leaving $2000), and $5000 from the Marriot Visa (leaving $5000).

This bumped the CL on the Chase Rewards MC to $30600. I then BT'ed $30000 to the Citi card which I am using for money laundering purposes. The $75 fee on that transfer amounts to a .25% fee.

Becky also told me the exact date that the 0% intro rate would last through (May 16 2007), which was nice because I always get confused by the language in the terms and conditions.

... oh, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to apply for a second set of BofA accounts for the new $125 bonus. Unless I find some fine print that says I need to wait 90 days or something.

I just talked to the chase CSR tonight. Very helpful and easy to understand, not Indian .

Also gave me the exact date the 0% apr was good for.

Was able to consolidate credit limits (12k each) , chase cash plus rewards into chase rewards mastercard.

Tried to get them to balance transfer to my checking , but was told no because the account must be at least 3 months old. They would however send me convienence checks to accomplish the transfer.

Was just wondering , do you sign up for the automatic pay the minimum amount each month thing?

Okay, more updates:

Yesterday (Monday, Memorial Day). Got a call from two fraud reps at BofA wondering about my Keep the Change scamming. But they're happy now.

This morning, called RBS to see what the deal is. First talked to a generic CSR, tho transferred me to an application rep, who then put me on hold while getting hold of an underwriter (they pulled a report from Equifax). Turns out they want a drivers license and two utility bills (telephone doesn't count) to verify address. Geeze. I lost my phone bill already, so that means I'll have to wait a month or get a nice letter from my apartment manager.

This evening, whole bunch of mail:

- Got my Citibank bank account debit card. Called to activate and found out my account was still "frozen" until I get them a signature card. However, I was able to still sign up for Online Banking. Weird.

- Received the Wells Fargo Visa. Activated. I called to verify that the BT was pending. In a way, that's a bummer, because the card included a BT check that I probably could have deposited directly into my account. Oh well, I can deal.

- Got the CitiBusiness card that I was encouraged to open over the phone. Made the 1-cent transaction to get the TY points. No 0% on this card.

- Also got the CitiBusiness PremierPass card that I applied for on a lark. Score! Made a 1-cent transaction to get the TY points. Hopefully my employer will let me use this card for business travel instead of the real corporate card.

Just a $4k credit limit. Fine because there's no 0%, but I called a CSR about reallocating, even between the two business cards, and she said no, each card is its own little fiefdom, and there's no shifting. It's the first time I've used the word "balkanization" while talking to a CSR.

Getting the second CitiBusiness card might be an important milestone. This, combined with tashayar's experience, put's the max number of Citi cards you can get at once at 2 personal, at least 2 business, and at least 1 store card. Pretty soon, you're talking about a lot of cards!

- To get while the gettin's good, I decided to go ahead and apply for a regular HSBC card to "complement" my GM FlexEarnings before my credit score goes in the dumpster. And guess what? The app was denied. Reason? Too many inquiries (Experian, 9) and non-homeownership. Burn. I think that's officially the last nail in the coffin of the CC app process.

Speaking of dumpsters, current credit scores are: TU 755, Exp 736, Equ 741. A measurable slippage in scores. It's notable that the balance on the Discover card is now visible to two bureaus.. None of the new Chase cards, or the big balance, are reported yet, I suspect that will be pretty brutal to the score.

g10ny said:Don't apply for a second HSBC, in their offers it's stated that you can only have a maximum of two. And you should still dream of the 2% card...

Well, too late, I already applied for and got insta-rejected for that second card. Are you referring to the Household Bank 2% card? I'm working on the assumption that no one will ever get that card again. I'll stick with the Fidelity 1.5% (have it now) or try to get that RBS custom cash (3% on some stufF) in a year or so.

USAA seems to be a very solid bank, but so far I'm digging the idea of using my Schwab or Fidelity accounts as primary banking accounts. Having some trouble figuring out Schwab's ACH rules though.

Taking stock of the situation after three weeks, I've got two applications still pending, BofA and RBS. Either of those could be a candidate for a BT. I'm kind of hoping I get approved enough to bump me over the $120k level, which would be 3x my available credit before I started.

I've got a total of $46k in BT's (from Chase, Wells, and Discover) currently hung up in credit balances on my citi cards, for which I have requested refund checks. And eventually I'll advance myself some cash off those citi cards as well. Looks like I'll be under 50% total utilization among all cards (illustrating how my applications were directed more towards bonuses and general spending usage rather than 0%'s)

I got back a response from HSBC about my credit limit increase request, and it was denied for insufficient account history. So this means I'm just going to let the GM Flexcard sit in my sock drawer.

Oh, and the credit scores at the moment: TU 755 Exp 734 Equ 712. (Again, none of the new Chase accounts showing up yet)