After enough research I am finally ready for my first App-O-Rama. I did take advantage of BT offers on my existing cards about 9 months ago and pocketed $2k in interest income but now I am ready to take the plunge and do a real AOR.
My current credit scores from CreditSecure are as follows:
Card --------------- Credit Line ------------- Age (in years) Citi Dividend----------$14k------------------- 7 Citi Platinum----------$18k------------------- 8 Discover Platinum------$11k------------------- 8 AMEX Blue Cash---------$13k------------------- 4 BofA Platinum----------$15k------------------- 5 Chase Platinum---------$30k------------------- 1.5 Chase Visa-------------$5k-------------------- 0.5 MBNA Platinum----------$23k------------------- 2.5 Citi Sears MC----------$4k-------------------- 1
No. of existing accounts: 9 Total Credit Line: $137k I am carrying no balances on any of the cards.
I am applying for the following cards in my upcoming AOR:
Card----------------------- Bonus --------------------- BT Offer Chase SonyStyle------------ $150 ---------------------- 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here Citi Simplicity Rewards---- $100 ---------------------- 0% for 12 months with no fee apply here Citi Professional SM------- $150+$40 cardoffers ------- 0% for 12 months with no fee apply here Chase Cash Plus Rewards---- $100 ---------------------- 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here Citi AT&T Universal-------- $50+$30 cardoffers -------- 0% for 12 months with no fee apply here BofA Money Return---------- $30 cardoffers ------------ 0% for 6 months with no fee apply here BofA Worldpoints----------- $75 ----------------------- 0% for 12 months with 3% fee apply here Discover Miles------------- $75+$40 cardoffers -------- 0% for 12 months with no fee apply here AMEX Starwood*------------- $100+$40 cardoffers ------- No BT offer apply here PNC Platinum Rewards------- $50------------------------ 0% for 12 months with no fee apply here BofA Rewards AMEX---------- $50 ----------------------- 0% for 12 months with 3% fee apply here Chase Priority Club**------ $120 ---------------------- No BT offer apply here AMEX Blue------------------ $50 ----------------------- No BT Offer (0% upto 15 months on purchases) apply here GE Money Platinum---------- $0 ------------------------ 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here Capital One Platinum------- $0 ------------------------ 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here Citi Diamond Preferred----- $50+$30 from cardoffers---- 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here Krogers 1-2-3 Rewards------ $0 ------------------------ 0% for 12 months with $60 fee apply here HSBC GM Flexible----------- $35 from cardoffers-------- 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here First National Rewards----- $50 ----------------------- 0% for 9 months with $75 fee apply here
* Annual fee of $30, waived first year ** Annual fee of $29, waived first year Note: Bonus amounts are cash equivalents of points, miles etc where applicable
No. of accounts I am applying: 19 Potential bonuses from issuers: $1170 Potential bonus from cardoffers: $245 Potential interest from BT offers: **priceless**
If you guys have any comments or advices, please post them before I go ahead with my AOR within 3-4 days. I will post my results later this week. Wish me luck!!
I started my AOR at 8:30 am PST and was done in 2 hours. I have updated the list above to reflect all the credit cards I applied for. The results are not so encouraging as most of the decisions are deferred. However, there were no instant denials. I was really disappointed that Citi gave me meager CL on new accounts.
I first did soft CLI requests on some of my existing cards. I got instant CLI on my all the requests.
- AMEX Blue Cash: CL went from $13k to $20k - BofA Platinum: CL went from $15k to $20k - MBNA Platinum: CL went from $23k to $30k
Now lets come to the AOR results. I will be updating the list below as I hear from the issuers in the coming weeks.
Card -------------------- Instant Status---------------Final Status------------ Credit Line Chase SonyStyle---------- Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $10,500 Citi Simplicity Rewards-- Approved--------------------- Approved -------------- $7,800 Citi Professional SM----- Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $1,000 Chase Cash Plus Rewards-- Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $10,000 Citi AT&T Universal------ Approved--------------------- Approved -------------- $4,200 BofA Money Return-------- Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $5,000 BofA Worldpoints--------- Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $5,000 Discover Miles----------- Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $6,000 AMEX Starwood------------ Approved--------------------- Approved -------------- $15,700 PNC Platinum Rewards----- Approved--------------------- Approved -------------- $8,000 BofA Rewards AMEX-------- Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $1,000 Chase Priority Club------ Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $25,000 AMEX Blue---------------- Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $10,000 GE Money Platinum-------- Deferred--------------------- Denied ---------------- Too many inquiries Capital One Platinum----- Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $2,000 Citi Diamond Preferred--- Deferred--------------------- Denied ---------------- Too many applications Krogers 1-2-3 Rewards---- Deferred--------------------- Approved -------------- $10,400 HSBC GM Flexible--------- Approved--------------------- Approved -------------- $700 First National Rewards--- Deferred--------------------- Denied ---------------- Too many inquiries
Total cards applied for: 19 Total number of approvals: 16 Total number of denials: 3 Number of credit inquiries: 16 (4 on experian, 11 on Equifax, 1 on transunion) Total new Credit Line: $141.3k Total bonuses from issuers: $1070 Total bonuses from cardoffers: $215
Total Credit Line before AOR: $137k Total Credit Line after AOR: $278.3k
I doubled my credit line with this AOR and will receive $1,300 in bonuses. Now its time to do some BT harvesting.
First step was to consolidate my credit lines.
1) Reallocated $12k from Citi Dividend and $14k from Citi Platinum to my Citi Simplicity card. This was done over the phone and although the CSR said it will take 3-5 business days, the CL changes showed up online in 10 mins. Total CL on Citi Simplicity card after reallocation is $33.8k.
2) Reallocated $25k from Chase Platinum, $22k from Chase Priority Club and $7k from Chase Cash Plus Rewards to my Chase Sony card. This was done over the phone and surprising no credit pull happened. The CSR said that they had my latest credit report on file (due to my AOR) and did not find it necessary to pull again. Total CL on Chase Sony card after reallocation is $64.5k.
3) Reallocated $27k from MBNA Platinum and $17k from BofA Platinum to my BofA Money Returns card. This was also done over the phone. I also had to get them waive my BT fees on Money Returns card. Total CL on BofA Money Returns card after reallocation is $49k.
Second step was to harvest the BT offers. All my BTed money will eventually end up in my Amboy online saving account.
- Krogers sent me a BT check with the card, I deposited it in my checking account. - Chase refused to transfer directly to my checking account. So I deposited the BT check I received with my Sony card into my checking account. I hate the fact that BofA places holds on the large checks I deposit into my checking account but I have no other option here. - Citi also refused to transfer directly to my checking account. Same story as Chase; deposit the BT check into my checking account and wait for BofA to clear the hold on the funds. - BofA transferred to my checking account without any problem.
Card --------------------- Credit Line / BTed amount ------ Utilization ----- BT offer Krogers Rewards ---------- $10,400 / $8,500 -------------- 81% ------------- 0% for 12 months ($60 fee) Citi Simplicity ---------- $33,800 / $28,000 ------------- 82% ------------- 0% for 12 months (no fee) BofA Money Returns ------- $49,000 / $35,000 ------------- 71% ------------- 0% for 6 months (no fee) Chase SonyStyle ---------- $64,500 / $45,000 ------------- 69% ------------- 0% for 12 months ($75 fee)
Total amount BTed: $116,500 Total utilization: 42%
Now, lets calculate the potential interest income from the BTs. I am assuming the following: - Bank Interest APR (not APY) of 5.1% for the year of 2007 - Min payment of 2% of balance per month - Tax bracket of 25% - 1 month loss of interest (for 12 months offer I calculate interest income for 11 months)
Total Potential Interest Income (before taxes) : $4,114 Total Potential Interest Income (after taxes) : $3,052
***** Conclusion *****
I would rate my first AOR quite successful. I will receive around $1,300 in bonuses and potentially around $4,114 in interest income (before taxes) over the next 12 months. My total utilization is around 42% which is worrisome. On hindsight I shouldn't have used the BT offer from Krogers Rewards card. I plan to pay down this card and also reduce my utilization on Citi Simplicity card to around 70% next month to bring my overall utilization to 35%. Idea is to get it under 30% within the next 3-4 months. I will keep this thread updated.
I hope my AOR thread is useful to other FWers who are planning their own AORs. Best of luck!!
Update: I have started a thread for my second AOR.
I didn't see any business accounts - a potential lucrative avenue. The balances are not reported on your credit report, so it only costs you a hard inquiry. Check out some of the threads for ideas if you do not currently have a business.
Applied and was immediately approved. Nice little no fee BT to compensate some other ones that don't have to be used quite yet.
bokchim
Member
posted: Dec. 5, 2006 @ 10:43a
hi OP,
What is your strategy to fund those BTs? do most of them have the feature to send yourself a check (like Citi does?)
EmilM
Member
posted: Dec. 5, 2006 @ 12:19p
From my recent (undocumented) AOR I think you will probably be disappointed with the HSBC GM Card. I was approved with a $700 credit limit. I asked for more, and they said they would resubmit to credit analysts, and then sent me a letter the next week saying they weren't going to increase the CL. So basically you're probably going to get the $35 referral fee, but an almost useless amount for BT transfer purposes. My credit score was 760-780 when I did my AOR, and most other issuers gave me 12-20K Credit limits.
EmilM said: From my recent (undocumented) AOR I think you will probably be disappointed with the HSBC GM Card. I was approved with a $700 credit limit. I asked for more, and they said they would resubmit to credit analysts, and then sent me a letter the next week saying they weren't going to increase the CL. So basically you're probably going to get the $35 referral fee, but an almost useless amount for BT transfer purposes. My credit score was 760-780 when I did my AOR, and most other issuers gave me 12-20K Credit limits.
Ditto that with another $700 line. I'd probably not do it.
Donedealzz said: How about toward the end of your app-o-rama Chase checking $100 offer BOA checking $100 offer
I thought about this and decided against it. I already have a BofA checking/saving accounts. For $100 from chase I decided not to do it. I may probably come back to bank bonuses in future for a mini-AOR.
therivler1 said: I didn't see any business accounts - a potential lucrative avenue. The balances are not reported on your credit report, so it only costs you a hard inquiry. Check out some of the threads for ideas if you do not currently have a business.
I don't have a registered business and therefore not applying for cards that are meant for business use. I don't want to make up something and run into trouble later. Maybe by next year I may have a legitimate business and do a biz-o-rama!!
EmilM said: From my recent (undocumented) AOR I think you will probably be disappointed with the HSBC GM Card. I was approved with a $700 credit limit. I asked for more, and they said they would resubmit to credit analysts, and then sent me a letter the next week saying they weren't going to increase the CL. So basically you're probably going to get the $35 referral fee, but an almost useless amount for BT transfer purposes. My credit score was 760-780 when I did my AOR, and most other issuers gave me 12-20K Credit limits.
Emil
Thanks Emil. I am going to take your advice and not apply for GM Card.
needdealsnow said: Look for Credit Line increases on existing cards. THe lines appear very low for the history and score. Do the CLI right before the new applications.
After applications, merge lines and draw out one card/ issuer if possible. See if your spouse can be included in this too.
I will definitely look for CLI on existing accounts. Thanks for reminding me.
src0
Senior Member
posted: Dec. 5, 2006 @ 1:24p
If you click apply on the cardoffers site for the Citi Professional card, then close the application window, it will offer you $150 to sign up via popup
src0 said: If you click apply on the cardoffers site for the Citi Professional card, then close the application window, it will offer you $150 to sign up via popup
Thanks!! I will try and confirm this during my AOR.
xCarsonx
Senior Member
posted: Dec. 5, 2006 @ 3:48p
People do AOR's to make beer money. I know this will bring some red, but what services does everyone use to keep up with their credit score?
beadedmonkey
Senior Member
posted: Dec. 5, 2006 @ 4:00p
discoganya said: Let me take the risk of asking this supremely naive question: why do people do AORs?
Edit: Why the red? I did disclose my naivety ... I'm not being presumptuous, I really want to know.
Purple crayon explanation:
People do AOR's to get the free money that is offered to you when you first sign up. Lots of places offer $50 or $100 if you apply for a charge card with them and are approved.
They also do them to get balance transfer offers of a rate that is lower than they can get from a savings account, to make money.
If you get, say, $100,000 worth of balance transfer money that you can transfer into a savings or checking account, your bank will pay 4% or 5% interest on that money. If you have a 0% offer for 12 months, then you can make $4000 or $5000 in 1 year in interest on that money. Yes you have a minimum monthly payment, but so what? You're not paying any interest, and at the end of the year you will owe the $100,000 less any monthly payments you made.
The drawback is that you often get hit with a balance transfer fee. As of February, Citibank and others are not capping those fees (used to be 3% of the total balance or $75, whichever was less). So borrowing that $100,000, if you have to pay $3000 in balance transfer fees to get it, will not be such a great deal so people are going to have to watch that.
It's kind of a fun game if you are disciplined to make your payments, not spend the money you get, and not destroy your life in the process. I haven't the time to babysit an AOR myself, but it's fun and interesting to see what others do.
ETA, another aspect of AOR that I never see discussed is the liability of all that money just sitting around in accounts if you get sued or divorced. It isn't really your money because you borrowed from unsecured credit lines to get it, but it's definately an asset to be divvied up in the event of divorce or if you are sued and underinsured.
I had one question before I go ahead with my AOR. I am planning to do the AOR starting tonight around 12:30 am PST. Is this a good time to do it or should I wait till 8 am tomorrow? Last thing I would want is hit "server under maintenance" messages while applying!! If someone has any experience with this, let me know. Thanks.
I am not going to say, you should apply for HSBC card. But, just as a data point, I applied for HSBC cash or fly CC during my last app-o-rama (not documented here at FWF) and got instant credit line of 23K. My initial FICO score was 805 when I applied for 17 cards and receive 16 (got denied for one citi card – applied for too many at the time) of them.
Also, I don’t have high income or anything compare to guys here. And, at the time, I had only 32K parked in HSBC savings account. So, I was surprised when I got 23K line.
While you are at it, I strongly suggest getting free version of roboform or something similar. This helped me tremendously with my application process.
I started my AOR around 8:00AM EST and took me just over 90 minutes to finish all. All were done online.
Another thing you may want to do BEFORE the AOR is decide and setup the destination for the funds. Open the account. Setup a trial transfer etc.
I did my applications in about 2 hrs. But I spent ONE MONTH rate chasing between WS, MBNA-MOAA, MBNA-AAA, MBNA-NEA ELOAN. Basically a lot of trouble... Worth it I guess because I was moving a lot of money around but still it is something you can avoid.
needdealsnow said: Another thing you may want to do BEFORE the AOR is decide and setup the destination for the funds. Open the account. Setup a trial transfer etc.
I did my applications in about 2 hrs. But I spent ONE MONTH rate chasing between WS, MBNA-MOAA, MBNA-AAA, MBNA-NEA ELOAN. Basically a lot of trouble... Worth it I guess because I was moving a lot of money around but still it is something you can avoid.
HSBC was a big waste of time. I got 1K
I have already decided to park all money in my GMAC online savings account. After that I will research and decide in about a month's time if I want to leave the money there and move to high yield CDs.
src0 said: If you click apply on the cardoffers site for the Citi Professional card, then close the application window, it will offer you $150 to sign up via popup
I tried this to test it and I did get the popup offering 5k bonus points more. But since you closed the main window I think you won't get thr $40 from cardoffers. Still $150 is better than $140!!
lahen said: I am not going to say, you should apply for HSBC card. But, just as a data point, I applied for HSBC cash or fly CC during my last app-o-rama (not documented here at FWF) and got instant credit line of 23K. My initial FICO score was 805 when I applied for 17 cards and receive 16 (got denied for one citi card – applied for too many at the time) of them.
Also, I don’t have high income or anything compare to guys here. And, at the time, I had only 32K parked in HSBC savings account. So, I was surprised when I got 23K line.
While you are at it, I strongly suggest getting free version of roboform or something similar. This helped me tremendously with my application process.
I started my AOR around 8:00AM EST and took me just over 90 minutes to finish all. All were done online.
ETA, another aspect of AOR that I never see discussed is the liability of all that money just sitting around in accounts if you get sued or divorced. It isn't really your money because you borrowed from unsecured credit lines to get it, but it's definately an asset to be divvied up in the event of divorce or if you are sued and underinsured.
Weird things happen every day.
Yes, I am glad you said that. This a risk to not take lightly!
Hindu, I don't know if you already did the AOR, but I believe the Citi Professional was going for 0% for 12 months through Citi's site as opposed to the 9 months on CardOffers. I think the interest on the extra 3 months is greater than the $40, but I'm just guessing....
vamos
Senior Member
posted: Dec. 5, 2006 @ 11:57p
might as well do the BofA MLB one as well to get a free ipod nano out of it!.
i tried the link and contrary to what one poster said, its still working. have to get in on this one myself.. got 3 shuffles and one gen1 nano from signup offers so far .
MosDeft said: Hindu, I don't know if you already did the AOR, but I believe the Citi Professional was going for 0% for 12 months through Citi's site as opposed to the 9 months on CardOffers. I think the interest on the extra 3 months is greater than the $40, but I'm just guessing....
I will be doing the AOR tomorrow. Yes, I thought about this but then I thought I could always reallocate my CL from Professional card to other Citi personal card. Or maybe not? I am not sure as Professional card is part personal part business card.
beadedmonkey said: discoganya said: Let me take the risk of asking this supremely naive question: why do people do AORs?
Edit: Why the red? I did disclose my naivety ... I'm not being presumptuous, I really want to know.
Purple crayon explanation:
People do AOR's to get the free money that is offered to you when you first sign up. Lots of places offer $50 or $100 if you apply for a charge card with them and are approved.
They also do them to get balance transfer offers of a rate that is lower than they can get from a savings account, to make money.
If you get, say, $100,000 worth of balance transfer money that you can transfer into a savings or checking account, your bank will pay 4% or 5% interest on that money. If you have a 0% offer for 12 months, then you can make $4000 or $5000 in 1 year in interest on that money. Yes you have a minimum monthly payment, but so what? You're not paying any interest, and at the end of the year you will owe the $100,000 less any monthly payments you made.
The drawback is that you often get hit with a balance transfer fee. As of February, Citibank and others are not capping those fees (used to be 3% of the total balance or $75, whichever was less). So borrowing that $100,000, if you have to pay $3000 in balance transfer fees to get it, will not be such a great deal so people are going to have to watch that.
It's kind of a fun game if you are disciplined to make your payments, not spend the money you get, and not destroy your life in the process. I haven't the time to babysit an AOR myself, but it's fun and interesting to see what others do.
ETA, another aspect of AOR that I never see discussed is the liability of all that money just sitting around in accounts if you get sued or divorced. It isn't really your money because you borrowed from unsecured credit lines to get it, but it's definately an asset to be divvied up in the event of divorce or if you are sued and underinsured.
Weird things happen every day.
Or if you die suddenly and your SO isn't a BT wiz. I left my wife detailed instructions in case I am killed suddenly so she can start closing the BT deals...
Hindustani said: MosDeft said: Hindu, I don't know if you already did the AOR, but I believe the Citi Professional was going for 0% for 12 months through Citi's site as opposed to the 9 months on CardOffers. I think the interest on the extra 3 months is greater than the $40, but I'm just guessing....
I will be doing the AOR tomorrow. Yes, I thought about this but then I thought I could always reallocate my CL from Professional card to other Citi personal card. Or maybe not? I am not sure as Professional card is part personal part business card.
You cannot reallocate from Citi Professional to another personal card. I tried, and so have many others, with no success. I don't know what Citi considers this card, as it shows up as a personal account.
Have you done the actual BT, especially from Citibank cards? I want to know if Citi would allow you to write the BT checks to your name to deposit to your account. Did you do that or made the check payable to your Bank name?
Thanks. Congrats on your aor!
BankofGreed
Greedy Member
posted: Dec. 6, 2006 @ 5:13p
Number of credit inquiries: 12 so far (3 on experian, 8 on equifax, 1 on transunion)
Would you mind telling us which issuer pulled which CR?
iamchuck
Happy Member
posted: Dec. 6, 2006 @ 5:25p
Are there any reasons giving for the deferrment of so many cards for your AOR? Is it just me or is card deferrment a rising trend in many of the recent AOR threads?
Have you done the actual BT, especially from Citibank cards? I want to know if Citi would allow you to write the BT checks to your name to deposit to your account. Did you do that or made the check payable to your Bank name?
Thanks. Congrats on your aor!
Citi cards usually allow you to deposit the checks on your name. As always, you should call and find from the CSR. I haven't done BT harvesting yet.
BankofGreed said: Number of credit inquiries: 12 so far (3 on experian, 8 on equifax, 1 on transunion)
Would you mind telling us which issuer pulled which CR?
It is not easy to make out as the report shows the bank names and not the individual credit card names. Here are the bank names:
Experian:
- Citibank USA NA - Elan Financial Services - BOA MBNA
Equifax:
- First USA Bank - Citi cards CBSDNA - Citibank USA NA - Citi cards CBSDNA - American Express TRS - Elan Financial Services - GE Money - Cap One Bank
Transunion:
- Cap One Bank
Looks like some banks pull from 2 credit agencies. Hope this helps.
toycats
Member
posted: Dec. 6, 2006 @ 9:01p
After reading your AOR, applied and PNC and got only 5K with instant approval , darn *#@!. Didn't know about that one as basically I've exhausted the BOA, CITI, Chase links over the past few months. Got rejected last week for the Discover because of too many "credit inquiries" and also rejected at First National Bank. Will do the 5K and transfer to Citbank money market for 5 percent. Used previous months AOR money and also openned up a 6 month CD with 35K at merrill lynch for the CD special and 15,000 points on their credit card after initial use. Points for a gift card equivalent of 150 bucks. Hopefully they treat the 35K as the collateral for a credit card and extend at least 35K as a credit line. 75 dollar fee for BT with a 1.99% rate. Bounce that back to BOA or Citi earning at least 5% to pocket that money. Merry XMAS!
jackcrawfish How did the CLI requests go? How did you do them? Online? Phone? All soft I presume?
Off topic (related to your adverse from CHASE... after reallocating from personal to biz (I utilized $16,500 of line at 97.5%), Chase reduced my biz line last month after 5 months of ontime payment activity.[/Q said:
I decided against CLI requests as I suspected I have reached max exposure with most of the major issuers and doing a CLI could have adversely affected the outcome on my new apps.
Thanks for the info on Chase. Just to be a little safe I have kept my biz utilization under 89% but with Chase you never know what triggers the adverse action. I will keep my fingers crossed
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