the shrinkster's lazy-man AOR

Who: Mrs. Psychtobe
Why: bonuses and a foray into the 0% BT world
HHI: high

Why is this a lazy man's AOR: because I didn't want to spend a lot of time doing it.

How is this a lazy man's AOR: I didn't check our credit reports first. I didn't pay for or check FICO or FAKO scores. I didn't reallocate credit lines. I didn't ask for soft credit line increases.

How much time have I spent?

Research on FWF and Cardoffers - 2 hours. This excludes usual daily time on FWF... which would be much higher.
Organizing and preparing - 1 hour
Submitting applications - 2 hours
Monitoring card approvals, minimums, due dates, rewards, etc - about 15 minutes per day when anything new happens.
Feb 12 2007 - 2 hours - paying bills, BTs, activating cards, etc. I've been busy for a while so this is the first real time I've had to work on this. I also set up a separate category in my MS Money program to track expenses and earnings for this AOR.
Feb 26 2007 - 1 hour - arranging BT from Chase and tidying up payments and checking on bonuses.

This AOR was done in Mrs. Psychtobe's name because I have a fraud alert on my reports. Based on previous glimpses of her free credit reports in the last 12 months, we believe there are no negatives and no more than 2-4 inquiries in the last year.

The AOR was done on 1/22/07 between 8 am and 10 am PST.

Cards she had:

Card - CL - balance
Macy's Star Rewards - $2,000.00 - $0
Macy's Visa - $8,000.00 - $100.00
Citi AT&T Universal Rewards - $2,560.00 - $0
Citi Dividend Platinum - $4,300.00 - $0
Express - $1,150.00 - $0
BOA MBNA Worldpoints - $33,600.00 - $0
US Bank Corporate - $5,500.00 - $0
Hilton Honors AMEX - $29,800.00 - $0
AMEX Platinum Cash Rebate - $500.00 - $0
AMEX SPG - $25,000.00 - $0

Total prior CL - $112,400
Total prior balance - $100

Cards we applied for

Chase United Visa (25,000 Mileage Plus miles) deferred - approved 5000
Chase United Business Visa (25,000 MP miles) deferred - approved 12,000
Chase Sony ($100) deferred - approved 17,000
Chase Marriott Visa (15k Marriott points + 1 night)deferred - approved 25,000
Chase Marriott Bus Visa (ditto) deferred - approved 2000 (!)
Chase Freedom Visa (0% APR purchase and BT) deferred - approved 5000
US Bank Northwest Signature Visa (15,000 NW miles) deferred - approved 25,000 - link
US Bank Northwest Platinum Visa (10,000 NW miles) deferred - approved 15,000 - link
US Bank Northwest Business Visa (15,000 NW miles) deferred - approved 20,000 - link
AMEX Gold Business (25,000 MR points) instant no pre-set limit
AMEX SPG Business (10,000 *points + $75 cardoffers)deferred - approved 29,500
AMEX Delta Gold Business (10,000 Delta miles) deferred - approved 30,000 (got 2 cards)
AMEX Delta Gold (15,000 Delta miles + $40 cardoffer)deferred - approved
AMEX Blue (0% APR on purchases for 15 months) deferred - approved 10,000
Citi Premier Pass (10,000 TY Points and 0% BT) deferred - approved 20,000
Citi Diamond Pref Rewards (10,000 TY Points, 0% BT) instant 6500
WAMU (0% on purchases for 15 months) instant 30,000
Discover (0% BT for life) deferred - approved 20,000
Juniper Travelocity (5000 Travelocity points) instant 35,000

Total applied for: 19
instant approval: 4
deferred approval: 15
denied: 0
no response yet: 0

New CL: $337,000 including the duplicate AMEX Delta Gold cards
Total CL: $449,400
Current BT money out: $87,500

Notes: Citi increased her old credit lines by $1000 apiece with no pull. Reallocated all of this to Citi Premier Pass and made the BT request - a check cut directly to home address.

Total bonuses:
20,000 TY points
5000 Travelocity points
40,000 NW miles
25,000 DL miles (?40,000 if they give me the bonus for 2 AMEX DL Biz cards)
50,000 UA miles (if all awarded)
30,000 Mariott points and 2 free nights
10,000 SPG points
$100 Sony
25,000 AMEX MR points
$265 cardoffers (yikes! got $75 each for 2 different DL AMEX Biz cards, $75 for AMEX Gold BIz Rewards, $75 for SPG Biz, and $40 for AMEX Blue. Most of this was totally unexpected.)

conservatively valuing bonuses at 1 cent each, total cash value of bonuses: $2565

I will update with more information as it comes in, and add links and thoughts when I have more time. Feedback and I-told-you-sos welcome.

On April 25, 2007, it sort of dawned on us that we had actually applied for 2 AMEX Delta Biz cards and NO AMEX Delta personal cards. AMEX clearly told us we could not have the 10k mile bonus for each biz card. Thus we had 10,000 stranded, worthless miles in a DL account. So we applied for a personal card on 4/25/7 and as of today have been approved. Interesting to note that 3 months after a massive AOR involving 5 AMEX cards with $120,000 in new credit among a total of 20 aps, it was a simple matter to be approved for yet another AMEX card.

updated with current offer statuses. Links to follow.

psychtobe said: I have now received my 3 cards with 0% on BTs, and I have several cards with 0% on purchases. Question: since I haven't yet received any of the Chase cards, should I wait to initiate my BTs until after I have received final approval/denial on the outstanding Chase and AMEX cards? Will having a higher rate of utilization on the 3 0% BT cards have an impact at this point on being approved or denied for the Chase/AMEX cards?

Yes, don't wait for chase. They probably pulled already, and even if they didn't, the cards won't report the BTs until the first statement close most likely. Discover may be one exception, as I noticed they reported my BT before the statement close.

thanks folks, and PolarDude for the PM. Discover and Citi... some 89% BT requests are heading your way. I believe even after this is accomplished, I should be able to use whatever I get from Chase, BT that to Citi, and request another BT from Citi to get the total up to 89% again, right? This ought to be fun, if Chase will give me anything near $20,000, I'll have $66,500 available, so $60,000 (89%) for 1 year at 0%. Would be a satisfactory start for a first AOR. If Chase wants to give me a bit more... so be it.

For the WaMu 0% on purchases for 15 months that you got instant approval and $30K, where did you find this offer? Were you using an offer # that had been mailed to you?

bjg31483 said: For the WaMu 0% on purchases for 15 months that you got instant approval and $30K, where did you find this offer? Were you using an offer # that had been mailed to you?

I got the same offer, except I was required to make a balance transfer (at 9.99%APR) before getting this 0% on purchases.

updated with 3 AMEX acceptances, though I don't know the CLs yet. They reduced the CL on an existing AMEX account (dropped to $500) though they left open the option of reallocation.

Update: thanks to a PM, I learned how to check my Cardoffers account. $75 is currently posted.

Interesting development: I applied for 1 Delta AMEX Business Card, and got 2, with different account numbers, each with a $30k CL. Not sure how that happened. Anyway, we'll take it. Possibly will get 2 different bonuses, and the $60k CL doesn't hurt.

I've update the first page with latest limits.

The Discover BT is now safely in HSBC, earning 6%. Later I will move it to WAMU, my home account.

The Citi cards are in the midst of having the small purchases paid off. Then I will BT all of the consolidated limit to HSBC.

Finally, i'm still waiting to get all my Chase cards, so as to reallocate and get the biggest Chase BT I can.

iSpecK said: mind detailing how you got Discover to BT money to HSBC?

was it via ACH or a check?

thx

they wouldn't directly transfer. We asked several times. They BT'd to her MBNA card, then we requested a check for a credit refund and sent the same amount to HSBC.

updated with Citi BT.

last step is to get Chase BT money. Question: will Chase reallocate from Biz to Personal lines of credit?

cardjuggler said: psychtobe said: Question: will Chase reallocate from Biz to Personal lines of credit?
Yes, per the CC Issuer FAQ.

BTW, please consider adding your data to Bhupathi's stats thread which makes a great reference. Two additional fields to include: # years of active credit, # inquiries BEFORE.

done. I don't have FICO scores, or recent inquiries. thanks.

psychtobe said: We reallocated all Chase CLs to the Chase Freedom with the exception of the $12k on the United Biz. For some reason the CSR said this couldn't be reallocated ...

Can't reallocate from business to personal credit lines.

Chase money BT'd to WAMU debit. It took 6 biz days - a little long, IMO, but it's there now. So I have $17,500 Discover money in HSBC; $40,000 from Chase in WAMU; and $30,000 from Citi in WAMU. It took nearly 6 weeks for the last of the BT money to appear from date of AOR.

I've never gotten a payment holiday from Citi, or from any other issuer when the APR is 0%. I'd send them a secure email asking through online account access so I'd have the response in writing if I were inclined to skip the payment.

took at look at the WAMU FICO score. It is 782, 2 months after the AOR. Don't know what it was before. Doesn't seem like anything we've done so far has had a major impact on her score. heck, she could practically do an AOR again with that score (but not her current utilization).

Additionally, Citi really didn't assess a minimum payment due for her first statement. Strange. I can't find any language about "no payments" or payment holidays.

update: I just today received my last 3 Cardoffers bonuses. This confirms 2 things:

a. it takes up to 3 months to get Cardoffers bonuses.
b. if you applied for more than 2 cards before the 2 card per year limit was in place, you should still get all your bonuses, even if all the eligible cards don't appear in your cardoffers.com account.

It's been over a month since the "no pmt due" Citi statement.
Did they ask for a monthly payment on the 2nd statement?

On April 25, 2007, it sort of dawned on us that we had actually applied for 2 AMEX Delta Biz cards and NO AMEX Delta personal cards. AMEX clearly told us we could not have the 10k mile bonus for each biz card. Thus we had 10,000 stranded, worthless miles in a DL account. So we applied for a personal card on 4/25/7 and as of today have been approved. Interesting to note that 3 months after a massive AOR involving 5 AMEX cards with $120,000 in new credit among a total of 20 aps, it was a simple matter to be approved for yet another AMEX card.

Credit score down to 748.