I would apply for an RBS card (look through cardoffers.com) to get another bank in there and the Sony Card (look for a $150 offer in the forums) a GE Money card, a Bank of America and other banks I may be missing to maximize your return.

Have you gotten any targeted mailings? I got 2 HSBC cards for 12 month 0% with no BT fee.

rasher said:I called E-Trade, and talked to a rep there about transferring into my HELOC. And while I have a valid account number, it is not a 16 digit credit card number. The rep said I should just transfer from my brokerage account into the HELOC.

Sounds like I'll be requesting $35,000 BTs on each of 20+ CC applications. Sweet! That's like $700,000! (Yeah right...)

And okay okay, I'll go ahead and apply for all of the cardoffers cards through the cardoffer website (instead of using my clickthru links...).

I would check each individual card. It takes more time, but on many I found better terms by not using cardoffers. I think 5-6 of my cards were the same through cardoffers. Mine was mainly for miles cards, so the 0% ones may be more consistent.

rasher said:
Sounds like I'll be requesting $35,000 BTs on each of 20+ CC applications. Sweet! That's like $700,000! (Yeah right...) I don't understand this. Don't you have to identify the "to" account for the BT on the CC application? If so, you would be requesting $700K to be transferred to a single account?

Is there a secondary confirmation of the BT (so you can redirect it) once the CC is granted, or does the BT automatically happen once the new creidt line is granted.

I would be tempted to do this if I had a "second chance" to direct the BT once the credit line is granted, otherwise I don't think I have an account that could deal with a $700K overpayment. Or even a $70K overpayment.

EDIT: Plus, if it was successful, wouldn't you instantly have 100% utilization on all the new credit?

A few of those cards probably aren't worth your time.

GM Flexible earnings will be approved, and you'll get the Card Offers money for it, but your Credit Limit will most likely be $600 or $700. I've read about 20 people's AOR threads, and applied for it myself, and we have 19 people getting $600/$700 limits, and one person getting $2,000. Yes you can make money on that BT at 5%, but it's a tiny number, and you should probably do it last or just pass on it if you don't want the extra inquiry.

The First National Bank offer will probably be approved, but they have on at least 2 occasions cancelled the card within a month, when they see how many other applications and BTs you've requested from other banks. I thought I was gonna have a nice $12,000 BT for a year, but they cancelled me after sending me the Credit Card and set me up in their online system. I replied to an actual letter, not an online offer, although I'm not sure that has any bearing on the issue.

Good luck on your AOR!

Emil

Xeon852 said:Just pay it down to whatever your magic number is (49%, 89%, whatever) before the first statement date and this shouldn't be an issue. This does mean staying very on top of this though, and could mean paying within a few days of activation of the card.

Ah ha. That's how you do that, huh? I guess that makes sense.

And another question for down the road:
Where should I keep my CCs at utilization-wise? 89% or 49%? I'm not really concerned about my credit score, as I intend to pay down BT balances before applying for any more credit later on down the road. But I would like to have the highest balances on all of these new cards as I can get away with, without triggering any adverse reactions from the issuers. Tips?
BTW: I've read through some credit utilization threads here, but they're talking more about maximizing credit score.

App-o-rama Lamma Ding Dong: Completed (OP Updated)

I was kind of expecting more instants, too. I don't know what's up.

cardjuggler said:rasher said:Where should I keep my CCs at utilization-wise? 89% or 49%? ... But I would like to have the highest balances on all of these new cards as I can get away with, without triggering any adverse reactions from the issuers. Tips?
It's possible to have all cards at 89% with no (or minimal) adverse action (I've done it, in fact above 89% prior to discovering FW), but it seems pretty clear that the risk of adverse action increases above 49%. Alot depends on how you react to adverse action, e.g. if the Omaha card gets closed when they do a second hard-pull in 1 month (as they just did for me), will that ruin your whole week or will you just shrug it off as the cost of doing business?

Also, Dave Hanson argues that in the long run you'll make more money at 49% since you will continue to get good offers. It's quite plausible, though not everyone is convinced (or can resist the short-term $). 2-person households could attempt to test that for themselves by each doing an AOR at a different level. (I'll do so later this year.)

WRT the 1st Bank of Omaha, did they make the 0% BT before they closed the account? I need to know this to say whether it will ruin my minute (ruin my week? no way) or if I just shrug it off. Also because they're on my App-o-rama list and if they're going to be mean and not make the loan I'll skip them.

cardjuggler said:I (somewhat carelessly) typed: if the Omaha card gets closed [I should have added here: as happened to someone else] when they do a second hard-pull in 1 month (as they just did for me), will that ruin your whole week or will you just shrug it off as the cost of doing business?
Sorry, I should have been more clear. Omaha did just do a second hard-pull for me (FNB OMAHA 01/09/2007 Experian, FNB OMAHA 12/08/2006 Experian) but as of today I haven't heard from them and don't expect adverse action. They were one of my last apps, so only saw 1 additional inquiry. My score dropped due to some >90% balances that I did with the application and didn't catch in time to pay before they got reported, but I would guess my 20+ year credit history will suffice.

I included a BT with the Omaha app. The $ posted to the destination card on 12/23. So, if they do close, there's a chance that the 0% will remain in effect.

I recall seeing someone else report that their account was closed at the one month interval. Not sure who or which thread, or whether they had already done the BT or were waiting on checks.

I hope you get to keep them! I see they offer 15 month 0% offers now! I wonder how many cards one can get with them per AOR, and lifetime?

So, to keep this topic alive while I'm waiting to report back to you all, maybe we can speculate about what to with all of the excess moneys from my BT. (I've got visions of sugar plum fairies in my head!)

Plan:
1. Pay down existing $28,000 HELOC, currently at 8.25%, down to zero.
2. Take any extra BT money and do what?

I currently have the following options:
1. Drop all of it into my existing Emigrant Direct Savings Account, which currently yields 5.05% APY
2. Open a BofA NEA MMA and fund that. IIRC, this yields something like 5.5%...
3. I also have an E-Trade Brokerage Account with only about $1000 worth of AAPL stock which I opened 14 months ago for fun. Perhaps I should take all of the BT money and drop it into this account and then invest in a conservative, principal-preserving portfolio? What sort of return could I see? Anyone else use 0% BT for this?

I mean, really, 5.00% return on BT money is really fantastic. 8.00% is even more fanstastic.

I've read through the first 5-10 pages of Finance Forum threads and am not finding really good relevant threads, but perhaps one of you reply with some links? I'd be happy to update the OP with these links about what to do with BT money.

Thanks.