FloorsMat said:Nice job. Be on the look out for a financial review with American Express though. I believe anything over $25k with AMEX is a huge trigger for FR. Also, a good way to cash out your AMEX BT is to take out a large BT with Citi (they will send you a check in your name), cash the check, then request a BT from AMEX to your Citi card. Once it posts to your Citi Card you can request another check very easily. This is how I did it and it went very smoothly. Good luck!


so I'm kind of confused, your saying you did 2 bt w/ citi... but isn't the promotional bt offer only good for the first one, or are you allowed to do as many bt's as you want w/ in the time of the promotional period?

scott1961 said:Ron515 said:Lust, how long does it take to clear the credit score back up? He only has to clear inquiries, right? Sorry but I don't see the big deal. I'm impressed at how financially savvy he is at his age. Good job dude!
Inquiries will fall off and score will recover but the thing I wonder is how all those cards would affect a future mortgage? I have never done a mortgage so don't know much about them. When OP goes for first mortgage would having dozens of open cards affect the decision making? Open lines can be considered future debt and I would think that would make some lenders nervous
All of that is factored into the credit score. Being young and through the mortgage process twice, I don't think OP will have a problem after his score corrects itself. Obviously all BT money needs to be repayed first, or his Debt-to-Income will be through the roof.

scott1961 said:Ron515 said:Lust, how long does it take to clear the credit score back up? He only has to clear inquiries, right? Sorry but I don't see the big deal. I'm impressed at how financially savvy he is at his age. Good job dude!
Inquiries will fall off and score will recover but the thing I wonder is how all those cards would affect a future mortgage? I have never done a mortgage so don't know much about them. When OP goes for first mortgage would having dozens of open cards affect the decision making? Open lines can be considered future debt and I would think that would make some lenders nervous

I've never had it mentioned, and I'm refinance in an aggressive, serial manner. Reality is that what makes sense to a normal person aren't the rules that credit issuers play by. In my experience, the more open crdit lines I have, the easier it's been to get approved. The higher my credit limits in place, the higher my approved credit limits. Now, this is just available, not utilized. Actually let balances show on your report and it's a different story.

LustForTheMoment gives some of the worst advice in these forums. 'Trash' your credit score? what does 'trash' mean? 800 down to 720? The only thing an 800 score is good for is to print it out, frame it, and hang it on your wall so you brag about how high your credit score is. Thanks, I'll take the 720 and the several thousand bananas a year I make from doing AOR's. My credit score may be 'trashed' but my bank account is lined.

Incarnate said:Ron515 said:Lust, how long does it take to clear the credit score back up? He only has to clear inquiries, right? Sorry but I don't see the big deal. I'm impressed at how financially savvy he is at his age. Good job dude!

The banks will laugh at him if he tries to get a loan for something.

No they won't.

WalStMonky said:Wrong, simply wrong. Never had a mortgage lender mention my lines, request any be closed, or offer me rates other than what's advertised. Have a PenFed first in process now, will close on a 5/1 ARM @5.25% interest only in about 10 days.
Hope you sell that home within 5 years.

It's your home, your call, Monky, but I agree with Incarnate.

By ANY measure, 15 and 30 year rates are currently near historical LOWS. I'd urge anyone who plans to remain in their house longer than 5 years to grab a FIXED rate mortgage at present. On the other hand, those who plan to turnover their home in the next 5 years are indeed much better off with an ARM.

NO ONE knows the future course of rates. They certainly could go LOWER, but history shows us that they're MUCH CLOSER to a low than a high. Why not lock in a fixed rather than gamble with an adjustable??

OP, if you max out each of those BT's, I think that means you're looking at >$90 with $140 total available credit. That's like 65% global utilization, with some lines maxed.

So, be ready for a greater-than 100 point drop in your credit scores, with a possibility of adverse action from AMEX or Chase.

I had a similarly large drop with my AOR, and I was fine with that, I also had Chase shave off $5k of credit limit (which fortunately didn't hurt me). My global utilization was 50%, although lots of little lines were maxed out.

Incarnate said:062703 said:Incarnate said:Ron515 said:Lust, how long does it take to clear the credit score back up? He only has to clear inquiries, right? Sorry but I don't see the big deal. I'm impressed at how financially savvy he is at his age. Good job dude!

The banks will laugh at him if he tries to get a loan for something.

No they won't.
You're right. I don't know what I was thinking. They'll gladly approve a mortgage loan for $200,000 when they see that he can run up $140,000 in debt the next day.

There are quite a few people on here that have 200-400K in available credit and I have yet to see a thread saying that so and so was denied a mortgage loan because they had too much credit. Also if a lender gets spooked by a large amount of available credit then they can simply ask you to close a few lines. Not a big deal. This type of thing is RARE and does not deserve the attention you are giving it.

doerrb said:alleni said:Hi, I'm a guy. "alleni" stands for "allen iverson"

Ah, The Answer. Hoya Saxa. Interesting how everyone assumed you were male 'til now though, eh?

I'm certain I won't do another AOR until all that stuff is done. Even if I have to wait 4-5 more years before the next AOR, I don't mind. This was fun but I know that messing up can mess up more important things for me.

Super. Sounds like you've got a good plan.

RE the high CLIs, were you able to get these by perhaps adding yourself as an AU on your mother's or grandmother's accounts early on -- say, several years ago? I have a CC on my credit report that was officially opened one year before I was born. Mystified at first, but then realized that my dad had added me as an AU to this card when I was in high school... and so I never removed it. I get CLI offers all the time, and my FICO is damn near perfect and about 50 points higher than that of a peer who has nearly the identical background, payment profile, etc. *except for* the early AU history. So my current crackpot theory is, your CLIs probably benefited from your early AU history.

Any other insight into the high CLIs, or care to trash my theory?

I might have been an AU at some point but my parents never told me and nothing about it is on my current reports. I only started checking in 01/06 though.
For Citi, I had two cards that kept getting CLIs by clicking the button online, then I consolidated the two.
For AMEX, they just give me automatic CLIs every once in awhile. I had a Green Rewards card with them for about a year and then I got the BlueCash at an initial CL of 10k. Closed the Green after that.
For Chase, I started around 5k and nothing for a year. I requested a CLI to 20k after a year and they granted it after a hard inq.
For USAA, anyone with an initial line of around 2-10k can CLI to 25-30k after 4 months. Only military-affiliated people can join though.

FloorsMat said:Nice job. Be on the look out for a financial review with American Express though. I believe anything over $25k with AMEX is a huge trigger for FR. Also, a good way to cash out your AMEX BT is to take out a large BT with Citi (they will send you a check in your name), cash the check, then request a BT from AMEX to your Citi card. Once it posts to your Citi Card you can request another check very easily. This is how I did it and it went very smoothly. Good luck!

Thanks, I'm currently in the process of requesting BT checks from my Citi DPR card.