Beckles said:Also, where did you even get the offers for 50k and 100k points for the Gold Rewards and Platinum cards ... and didn't you have to pay the annual fee on those ?Not sure where OP found these offers either. WRT to being assessed the annual fees on these cards, if you cancel the card AMEX has always given me a pro-rated refund such that at most I paid for just a month (1/12*AF). Sometimes they just refunded the entire annual fee.

Question: what do you do with your profits from the AOR ?

First of all, thanks to everyone for the positive feedback !!! I am glad that my post can 'give a little back' after I learned so much from everyone's contributions over the last few years.


Now to answer everyone's questions:

My inclusion of stock/mutual fund trading profits:
While I can understand your point of view, I stand by this inclusion because these gains were made due to the cash flow from my AOR. From my viewpoint, my profits from my AOR include all monies gained through the use of said AOR cash flow. The fact that I chose the stock market as a profit vehicle for these funds, as opposed to savings accounts, treasury bonds, or lottery tickets, does not make a difference IMO.

As I mentioned in my OP, I decided to abandon the stock trading method of utilizing my AOR cash flow due to the stress of worrying about it. While I definitely have enough personal funds to cover any losses incurred in said trading, I realized that the increased chance of superior gains from this method over the tradional internet savings account was contrary to my overall goal of 'easy money' from an AOR. By this I mean earning an impressive profit with very little risk and time investment (after all the research and planning, of course!). The planning, tracking, and timing of the stock trading went strongly against this goal of stress free dough!

While I will not trade individual stocks with AOR $$$ in the future, I am still analyzing the viabilty of the mutual fund option for my own risk levels. But that's another thread!!


Dave's question about why I used a 75% CL utilization standard:
To be honest, I believe I started out using the 70% standard that has been fairly commonplace in other AOR threads. After seeing my various credit lines grow, I admit I got a little greedy and abandoned the 70% parameter in some situations. I now see that the additional credit score hit, increased additional adverse action risk, and massive decrease in new offers could probably be minimized by sticking closely to the 70% (or 50%) levels. I hope to be able to control myself a little bit better in any possible future AORs. I advise other members that are planning future AORs to come up with a plan that is effective in both producing $$$ and covering your butt AND sticking to it as closely as possible. I know I will, as the Chase account closing letters really gave me a scare!

In addition, Dave mentioned that I might want to consider paying down my lines to below the 70% or even 50% levels in order to see the effect on my credit score and new offers. I will be doing this with my large Chase BT that recieved the previously discussed adverse action. I will also be reviewing my other BTs on this issue as well.

Chase Account Closings/Reopenings:
Finally, a few members asked me about this. I will start from the beginning and go from there...

As mentioned in my OP, a few months after my AOR had been completed I received a bunch of letters from Chase (one for each of my non-BT accounts). These letters stated that they were closing these accounts due to (1) balance too high compared to credit limit, (2)number of accounts currently in use, and (3)balance owed on revolving accounts are too high.

Upon receiving the letters, I reviewed my accounts to familiarize myself with all the specifics for each and then called the number on the letter for the 'Portfolio Lending' Dept. (1-800-219-0015) in order to argue my case.

First, I tried the ol' I am a longtime customer that has always paid on time routine. That didn't fly.

Next, I stated that I possess more than enough liquid assets to cover all my liabilities and I would be willing to provide proof of this. The person I spoke with stated that they would be willing to review this information and possibly reopen my accounts and I should fax the info to the fax # he gave me. He stated that the docs. would be reviewed in the order they are received and the decision is up to which ever account rep. reviews my docs.

Based on this info, I gathered account statements (with account numbers, etc. blacked out) for my HSBC savings account (where most of my AOR dough was located), my eTrade brokerage account, and my 401(k) account (I'd be interested to see how they treated the 401(k) ). I also composed a nice little professional cover letter that I think aided my case as well. These docs were faxed over to the Chase dept. and I requested that they call me back with their decision. They never called so I just waited for the letters. About a week later I received a letter for each account stating that they were reopening my all my credit lines to their orginial limits.

That's about it. My tips are pretty much common sense: (1)Be friendly and professional when speaking to the reps. and pretend like you don't know more than they do (although in many cases you probably do). I beleive in this becuase I think these guys have a decent amount of leeway as to what they can do. (2) If you get to the documentation stage, write a nice little cover letter that clearly articulates your case, explains your proof/docs, and states what you would like them to do for you. (3)Follow the 50%/70% rules so that you don't have to deal with this!!!

The "untidiness" of my data tables:
I struggled with this for awhile, as I also prefer to read clear and concise data! I had everything neatly organized in Excel data tables but I didn't know how to cut/paste it into my post without everything getting funky on me. This is the best I could up with at the time. Any tips for future usage are appreciated!!

My original credit line increases from Stage 1:
I'd have to go back and look at the specifics, but I think I had about 3 or 4 lines that gave me a few $K increase per line. In addition to those, the addition of my wife's 25K MBNA Chicago Bulls card made up the bulk of my overall CL increase from Stage 1 of my AOR.

Well, I think that's it for now! I gotta get some dinner!!

very good job! Thanks OP!

That's hard core.

OMG, admire!

Great job, OP! Thanks for all these efforts to log everything and share.

I'm tempted by the successful AOR story. However, I once registered in a website that blocks all the annoying credit card invitation letters and I don't remember the address any more. Does anybody know this website? I want to unblock it and let the AOR begin!

steevyniu2004 said:

As of 9/1, my profits from my first AOR are approximately………..
275.00 from cardoffers.com bonus’
1,500.00 HSBC savings account interest
500.00 other savings account interest
4,000.00 from stock trading
1,200.00 from unrealized mutual fund gain
1,200.00 from free gift card sales
100.00 from free iPod sale
Total 8,775.00


Thanks for a very detailed post, made for an interesting read to see your breakdown of what you actually made from doing an AOR. Seems using some of that money for trading stocks gave you a nice boost but is clearly not what most here should try and copy

Excellent execution and post steevyniu2004.

I have a couple of questions. You applied for two business cards, do you have serious business or a minimal one for BT purposes? You also got a few large initial credit lines, 30K from WaMu which I believe is the max for WaMu. Did you already have a relationship with them like a mortgage, or do you have a seriously large household income?