Five Credit Cards, Two Wedding Invitations, a Christmas card, and a Thank You Note

That makes a good mail day. Mrs. PugRanch was excited about the wedding invitations and I was excited about the credit cards. Credit lines totalling $58,500 arrived today. To be fair, I already knew $16,500 was on the way (a little like finding out the sex of your children from the ultrasounds), but that still leaves $42,000 to get excited about.

But curb your enthusiasm, $22,000 was courtesy of American Express by way of the Starwood Business card. That means no 0% BT, no 0% purchases, and not even any headroom on my debt ratios since business cards don't show up on your personal credit reports. Still, it's nice for American Express to show the love. They've been showing me a lot of love lately with the Blue Cash increase to $30,000. I don't know what I did to get on AMEX's good side but I hope I can keep them happy.

Other new lines in the mailbox included:
$6,500 for Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards American Express #2
10,000 for Advanta
13,500 for CitiBusiness with TY Network Card

It's nice to see Citi doesn't hate me as much as I originally thought they did.

Advanta Platinum Business Card with Rewards

Apply through cardoffers.com

ANNUAL FEE: 0
0% PURCHASE? No
0% BT TERM? 15 months
0% BT FEE? 3% max $50
REWARDS: Paltry
BONUSES: $50 cardoffers.com

Since this is one of the cards that arrived today, I'll go ahead and write about it. This card is not one that I plan to use for purchases. I just got it for the 15 month 0% BT offer. I believe that when I was looking closely at this card's terms that it said the BT needed to be to another business card. It may have also said that BT offer was only valid when the BT's were requested on the a application itself. Clearly, I should have written this a long time ago before I looked at eight or nine other cards. If you are considering this card I guess your homework is to go look at the terms and conditions on the BT.

What I do know is the way I played this one was by requesting a BT to my Chase Business Platinum on the application itself. Some on FW believe that asking for large BT's on the application is a way to get higher limits so on this application I requested a $12,000 BT. Of course I didn't know at the time that they'd only approve me for $10,000 so I'm curious to see if the BT to Chase goes through and how much they transfer.

The Chase card still has about six months to run on its 0% purchase offer, but it's maxed out. My idea was create some headroom on the Chase card for new purchases and start a new 15 month clock on the old purchases by way of the 0% BT.

Maybe I'll get some answers when I activate the card. Of course if Advanta is like PNC I'll just be talking to the auto-attendant.

Edit: The auto attendant told me I had only $250 of credit. Now online I show at $9750 BT and a $50 fee. That's 98% usage but I'm letting it ride since this business line doesn't show up on my personal credit report.

cyberkost said:1) overall utilization (all balances / all CLs) >50% = mighty bad
Instead of "mighty bad" I would say "calculated risk". I think people should stick with whatever level of risk they're comfortable with, and I think Dave Hanson's cautious approach is a great strategy in general. Anyone who is considering going beyond that should first read the "adverse action" thread. But, for those who don't mind having a card cancelled or a line reduced, there's more short-term $ at higher utilization. One data point: I'm currently at 89% on most cards, with 75% overall. And, this is cautious for me. I ran both numbers higher prior to discovering FW!

cyberkost said:Would you mind telling how many hard inq. you had before the AOR. Asking b/c I have 4 at the moment.
It's a good question that should be added to Bhupathi's thread (along with # years of active credit; both of which I should have thought of when that thread first came around). Meanwhile, searching "inquiries" should turn up some good recent posts. It's possible to have a very successful AOR with a handful of inquiries.

PugRanch said:echip, I think you are asking about BTing FROM the Chase Sony card TO two other cards. if that's what you are asking then I think you should call Chase and do the BT with a CSR. Ask them to waive the $75 for the other transfer, or better yet, for both.
Actually "from" and "to" may not be what they seem. Assuming Chase Sony is the new card with 0%: Most ordinary people follow the cash: Chase Sony is sending $ to another CC. But, the CC companies are looking at the debt; the "balance due". So, the "balance" is being transfered FROM the other CC TO Chase Sony. And, yes, Chase Sony will charge $75 for each BT (unless you ask them nicely to waive it, which Chase has been known to do but YMMV).

Note: this is also the reason that having $ sent to checking (or other "asset" account) is the exception rather than the rule; that's not technically a "balance transfer".

I just applied online for the Sony card but wasn't granted instant approval. Instead I was given this message:

"We are currently reviewing your application.
You will be notified in writing about the status of your application within 30 days"

I have a high fico (800+) and have only three or four other cards, none of which carry any balances. Was anyone else not granted instant approval?

-is1971

Negative AMEX Balance

One of the techniques I used (or tried to use) to get cash out the new cards is to create a negative balance on my AMEX Blue Cash card which I have held and used regularly for several years.

I learned about this technique on MyMoneyBlog -- specifically this article. Here is the relevant section:

I have also done this with American Express by calling in, they’ve never given me a hard time. Sometimes they will make you wait for a few days to make sure the payment clears before issuing the check.

I tried it today. The phone call took 26 minutes (my phone has a timer). I am not at all sure that I'm actually going to get the money. I was put on hold probably six times and I was asked all kinds of questions, and not the usual questions about identification. I was asked how the payment was made, why the payment was made, what the check number was, what the bank was, what the routing number was, what the account number was, what the check number was. I didn't have good answer for a lot of those questions since they money was paid by other banks.

At the end I was given a dispute number (I'm not sure why) and a three minute pitch on primary car rental coverage insurance. He did say I would get a check in "six to eight" weeks at the conclusion of the investigation, but if they actually do investigate they will find out my answers to most of their questions were wrong.

I suppose in the end I'll get the money. They do actually have more money than I owe them. Maybe I just jumped the gun by calling too soon, but I don't have a good feeling about this. I sure don't want my AMEX lines closed. So I guess now I just wait and see.

PugRanch you might want to read the AMEX FR thread. Actions like this for large amounts have triggered FR from AMEX in the past. So unless you got income and assets to back up large line and willing to provide proof to AMEX they will close all your accounts. If you do provide proof they will lower or keep your limits were they are based on the proof you sent them.

OK, I just called AMEX back and this time it only took four minutes. Just to give you an idea of the scale of the problem, I had $11,000 BT'ed to AMEX Blue from two other (new) non-AMEX cards. Due to extraordinarily bad timing, I ended up with this series of credits:

$3700 payment
$3000 BT in
$8000 BT in
-----------
$14,700 over two days.

I say the timing was bad because my regular payment posted right before the BT's. I had hoped to cancel that payment but I missed it by a couple of days.

Anyway, my actual negative balance is NOT $14,700. It is $7400 due to new spending. $7400 is the amount I requested in the form of a refund check. When I called back I told them that it didn't make sense to send me the whole amount because I have a $2300 balance on a different AMEX card. The guy asked me if I still wanted a check for the rest and I said yes because I didn't really know what else to say.

I guess what I'm trying to do is get this refund check down low enough that it will fly under the radar. Wish me luck.

PolarDude said:I have gotten refunds from AMEX before. The very last time, I simply emailed them via their secure site, and I got the check in about 10 calendar days!

Simply amazing how everything is relative. 10 days is quick only in relation to the normal time they need to cut such a check. Sheesh, my wife applied for a credit card (ok several) last Wed 1/16 the card was here on Monday. Requested BT checks from Chase Monday, they arrived Wednesday. They had to arrange to print these checks out. But they were kind enough to Fed Ex them on their nickle. Oh well, nothing to do about it, that's life.

edit: on the other hand I can recall when it used to take almost a month from app to receiving the card, FWIW.

Final Approval Results

10 of 10 applications approved.
$600 in bonuses (cash, gift cards, points) due.
$122,500 in new credit.

Now lets exclude the Starwood card which doesn't have a 0% offer.

$100,500 in new credit with 0% offers.
+ 15,000 reallocated from a non-0% card to a 0% card.
= $115,500 in new 0% credit.

Current TrueCredit FAKO's: 761 (TU), 770 (Ex), 759 (Eq)

I am tracking these FAKO's daily out of interest and for bumpage. It will be interesting to see how low they go when all the new lines are reporting. More than half of the new lines are in the name of my C corp (with EIN) so I'm hopeful that those won't ever report on my personal credit reports. That has been the case with my two business cards that predate the AOR.