My first stuff-o-rama (month 14: mission accomplished)

Hi all,

I know that app-o-rama play-by-plays are dime-a-dozen, so feel free to either ignore this, or ask for more info if there's something useful you can learn from my experience.

Structure of this Topic: The Original Post is the intro to my AOR, it doesn't really change. The Topic summary contains an updated running list of the results of the AOR. And then many of my own posts to this thread are stream-of-consciousness updates, as events occur.

Background: I haven't done an app-o-rama before. In fact, the only "unnecessary" card I had is a Schwab Visa I got last year for a gift card (which leads to the next point).

Turns out I had a $15 charge on this card which I forgot about, and bills were being mailed to the wrong address, and I went about 120 days delinquent, and MBNA/Schwab shut down the card. Eventually, in April, I called up MBNA, talked to a nice man in the credit department named Tom, and we noticed that the bills were going to a building that didn't exist. He reopened the card, reversed the fees, and corrected the credit entries.

So, before that was resolved, credit was dinged: Experian and Transunion FAKOs were 727 and 668. I was even denied for a credit union CC I applied for (the horror). Therefore, I decided to wait about a month until the cleaned up entry was reported to the bureaus until resuming applying for CC's. However, I still opened some new bank accounts during that period, with the rationale that bank's don't really care about credit scores. Was that a mistake? We'll find out.

OBJECTIVE:
Unlike jairocon's simultaneous AOR, my objective is more geared towards racking up signup bonuses, with BT's as a side deal. I'm not carrying any balances now, and I just don't spend that much a year through cards. Also, I tried to stack up applications from one bank as closely to each other as possible, in the hopes of disguising the credit inquiries. (For the Citi cards, I submitted 4 apps in under one second).

PREEXISTING CARDS:

Chase Cash Plus Visa, 10 yrs, $20k CL (my primary spender, recently converted to Cash 5%/1%)
Discover Card, 10 yrs, $8k CL (unused)
Schwab Visa, 1 yr, $12k (unused, see above)
Wells Fargo Checking account, 5 yrs
Charles Schwab Brokerage account, 15 yrs

EARLY (mid-April) CC APPLICATIONS:
(cards listed in order of app)

Citi mtvU, approved by mail, $2k CL (wanted 5% on restaurants/movies and $40 through cardoffers.com)
Advanta Rewards, approved instantly, $2.5k CL (wanted 5% on phone/computers)
Cabrillo Credit Union Mastercard, denied (where I discovered the 669 FAKO)

BANK-O-RAMA (early May):

NetBank checking, $500 deposit, $75 cash
Netbank Money Market, $1000 deposit, $75 cash
Fidelity Account, $10,000 deposit for $100 cash and 15k UAL miles
BofA Savings for $25 cash
BofA Checking for $75 cash
BofA autotransfer checking -> savings for $15
(and a Keep The Change card which I am exploiting to the fullest)

PAUSE and wait for credit score to get repaired
FAKOs from privacymatters.com: TU 776, EXP 785, EQU 760

FULL-ON APP-O-RAMA (May 13)
(cards listed in order of application)
Chase Cash Plus MC, $100 cash and 12mo 0% BT, (telephone app), deferred
Chase Sony, $100 cash and 12mo 0% BT, deferred
Citi Diamond Pref Rewards MC, $100 GC and 12mo 0% free BT, insta-approved $7.3k
Citi Simplicity Rewards MC, $100 GC and 12mo 0% free BT, deferred
Citi Diamond Pref AMEX, $100 GC and 12mo 0% free BT, deferred
Citi Platinum AAdvantage MC, either 20k miles or 15k miles and $40 from cardoffers.com, deferred
MBNA NY Jets MC, Ipod Nano(!) and 15mo 0% unlimited fee BT, deferred
MBNA Fidelity MC, 1.5% rebate to Fidelity account, deferred
HSBC GM FlexEarnings MC, 12mo 0% BT and $35 from cardoffers.com, deferred
Discover Gas Card, 12mo 0% BT and $40 from cardoffers.com, deferred
RBS Platinum MC, 10mo 0% BT, deferred (I want an angle on the CustomCash)
Chase Marriot Rewards Visa (I had forgotten about this one, deferred)

INITIAL REACTION

Geeze, only one instant approval? I feel like a putz. Should I have waited on the bank apps until after the CCS? Should I not have applied for the bulk of the cards at the same time? I guess I'll find out as I hear back on the CC offers.

LATER REACTION

Okay, it has turned out better than that. See Quick Summary (or endless update postings) for details

Most of my apps were deffered too, on my recent spree. I think it's because my current address is not on equifax.

Good points guys. While I've examined my experian and Equifax reports individually (and they had no errors), I can't guarantee that there's not some crack-smoking going on on my credit report. for instance, the combined report from privacymatters had some flakey information attributed to equifax that wasn't actually on the equifax report I'm holding in my hand.

And hair, I suspect that if I get approved up for most of these cards, my age of credit is going to be downright infantile. I plan on closing/consolidating several of them if possible (I know it doesn't really affect the score, but I don't need 6 cards from on issuer).

kennybrowneyes said: Uhh.. stupid question.
But what does deferred mean?

My bad, I may have been trying to invent a word. The whole "we will evaluate your application and respond within 30 days" thing. I'll update as I receive letters of acceptance or declination.

Because dangit, I wanted those cards now.

Quick Q to the experts,

I have a credit history of only 4.5 yrs. 12 accounts in total. 5 accounts opened 4 yrs back and the rest in between. I recently closed 7 "newer" accounts and two old accounts because the CLs were not increasing even though they were 0 balances and low CLs. I also closed 2 old accounts with low CLs. Now my CL on the 3 remaining cards are around 10K each. How long should I wait till I start my apporama. I applied for new cards like crazy last year, so lots of inquiries and only a car loan last month where FICO was around 700, now fell down to 687. So, am planning to wait till FICO crosses 750 or maybe 800 to do an apporama. balances on current cards are less than 20% of CLs. current TU/EX score is 732 and equifax is 697.

Q is wont the banks deny the C apps because I have closed many accounts with lower CLs recently which they themselves have issued. If so am I better off applying for apps with banks that I never have had a CC with before (BoA, Providian etc)


also, does any1 remember the thread where the "list of institutions and the CRA agency they use when you apply for a credit card" is present. thx

minghi said: also, does any1 remember the thread where the "list of institutions and the CRA agency they use when you apply for a credit card" is present. thx

I don't know for sure, but I do remember that this AOR had some mention with it.

I have a hunch, though that with the big CC issuers, the bureau pulled for any one application may vary randomly. I guess I'll find out soon when the four near-simultanous Citi inquiries hit... actually, I'll try to update the summary with who hit which bureau.

markkundinger said: kennybrowneyes said: Uhh.. stupid question.
But what does deferred mean?

My bad, I may have been trying to invent a word. The whole "we will evaluate your application and respond within 30 days" thing. I'll update as I receive letters of acceptance or declination.

Because dangit, I wanted those cards now.
You could say 'Pending' or 'TBD' for To Be Determined. Deferred means it will be approved but not now.
Defer: To put off; postpone.

P.S.: 'Pending' or "We will evaluate..." == Tough luck! or only a few hunder $ CL.

AugustFour said: You could say 'Pending' or 'TBD' for To Be Determined. Deferred means it will be approved but not now.
Defer: To put off; postpone.

Okay, fine, Captain Grammar I'll switch it to "pending" in the summary, it's a more better word.

Instant approvals are meaningless. Get over it. It doesn't mean anything.

Everything you've done is fine. Just wait for the applications to come in. Call some of the companies to check on it...they may have already made a decision or they may make it while they've got you on the phone.

-D

Well, I pulled my own credit report right before applying, and it had the 3 CC and 1 bank pull on it. Presumably a lender's credit report pull would be just as up to date.

However, it only had one of the two new CC accounts on it, I guess the other updated slightly slower.

markkundinger said: Also, I got an email from HSBC with a link to check application status. Good news: I got accepted. Bad news: It's a $2k credit limit. With the associated BT fee, this doesn't even make it worthwhile to do anything with.

So if I were to view this as a "beach head" into HSBC, anyone have an idea of how I can parlay this card into a decent credit limit or a no-fee BT? (same card, add'l cards?)

I got the GM Card a few years back (in 2002 it was Household bank, now owned by HSBC). CL was really low to begin with (2.5K), and even with heavy use at times the auto-CLI were only $1k at a time about every 6 months.

Yeah HSBC gave me a $600 limit which gave me a good laugh. I figure next time around I'll ask for a CLI and see where it gets me.

Yep, I'm going to tally the offers and I'm not counting them until I actually receive them. Therefore, it could be a damn long time. Just the $100 from Fidelity so far, which I've already lost in emerging markets

Huh. Just got a call from a woman at Discover. Wanted to verify a few things:

- That I wanted a new card, when I had one I hadn't used since 2003. (teehee)
- Generic personal info
- A landline phone number

Then when we were winding up, she said "we'll be sending you your card within 7-10 days", to which I responded "oh wait, was I already accepted?", and she said, "uh, no, not quite yet... what credit limit were you looking for anyway?". I said "uh.. I'd like to match my current card ($8k)." What should I have answered, "as big as I can get?".

Oh, and my updated FAKOs after the inquiries:
TU 774, EXP 779, EQU 760

The ding to credit score for inquiries sure seems tiny. Not to say that a credit card issuer might not get alarmed at a rapid increase in inquiries.

... no credit pull from RBS, I think I'll try to call them tomorrow, see if they're alive.

EDIT:

Then I decided to call MBNA on a lark to check on application status, since that's all the rage for the NY Jets Ipod card. Both apps (Jets and Fidelity) were approved for CL's of $5k each. Kind of slick they did that on one credit pull. woot.

Also: J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets!

Hello. I stumbled on this discussion and was intrigued.

I have a couple of questions that I am hoping someone can respond to.

1 - mbaker4096 mentioned an Account Aggregation Service to keep tabs on multiple accounts -- I am not familiar with such services. Who/ What/ Where? Please clarify as I am sure this would make my life easier.

2 - It seems like you guys are forever checking your credit report. How can you without being subject to the fees?

Thanks again.

SB.

1) Account aggregation can be found by a variety of methods. Personally, I have a copy of Microsoft Money which does pretty good. But it's also offered as a service by other places. Bank of America, Netbank, and Fidelity come to mind. Most or all of these actually outsource to Yodlee.

2) I signed up for a 7 day trial with privacymatters123.com. I'm actually going to cancel it... right now.
Last snapshot of credit scores is:

TU 774, EXP 751, EQU 760

(The Experian tankage seem to be because the two newly accepted MBNA accounts were already being reported. That was quick!)

3) I cleverly linked to the $15 BofA transfer bonus in my original post:
BofA autotransfer checking -> savings for $15

Sorry, double post.

Hey markkundinger,
Did you get the $25 and $75 BOFA bonuses online? I wanted to go to the local bank to open up these accounts but I don't want to miss out on the bonuses. Is there a code or something or is it just for everyone who opens one up? Thanks.

I haven't received any bank bonuses yet (will probably have to wait a month or two), but I think the easiest current way to scam BofA would be this thread., although I haven't tried it.

wow so how many Citi cards are you going to get? Did you ask the chick about the status of your other 2? You got some fast replys from people Im hoping to get my replys soon on my little spree

very informative thanks