Uf-f, I'm going through some busy times at work ... but there are some developments that I need to document here before I forget:

1. Consolidated BOA NEA card into World Points Card (closed NEA and got a $36.4K on the WP). CSR offered to transfer the entire CL to checking, I said that $32K would be enough for the Lexus I'm looking to buy . $32K was in my checking account in 3 business days (I did get a call from their fraud dpt. before the DD was initiated) and much of this money is already on its way to HSBC/ED (no fee, 0% through 08/11/07)

2. Wachovia has finally lifted the hold on the $44K Chase Free Cash Reward Card BT check (10 business days or so). So this money is also on its way to HSBC. Called Chase (3-4 times) and sent secure messages (2 times) to have the $75 fee waived. All responses were "no", and only one CSR said he'd "look into it". Not sure how, but the fee is credited back now

3. WaMu sent a check to Chase for $11.5K (CL=$12K) and assessed $75 fee. As soon as the check posted/cleared I sent $875 back to WaMu to make my balance $10.7K with them (<90% utilization)

4. PNC: I finished accumulating $500 in purchases (in order to get $50 statement credit) and paid it back ... so, I'm ready to do a BT, but the checks from PNC have not come yet. It's been over a month since they approved me ... I'm going to get on their web-site and order convenience checks (are these suitable for BT?) or will look into washing the money through one of the CITI cards (so far I've avoided going through another card)

5. CITI has reallocated portions of my other credit lines with them onto the CITI Professional card, which now has a CL of $24.1K. I have some checks from this card that say 0% on them ... however, I'll first try these checks on my wife's card (well, she's been doing a shadow AOR and got one CITI Professional card (+ 15K TY points and $40 cardoffers bonus) as well) and see if there's a problem using these checks. The only point of concern is that my checks expire on 03/24.

6. CITI Business: have not taken any actions yet. Waiting for the billing cycle to close and getting a paper statement (hopefully with some BT checks attached).

7. I wrote ot a Discover check to myself (for $5K) and put it into my checking account. As far as I can tell it has cleared and has caused no problems on the Discover end.

PugRanch said:FYI, I applied for PNC on 1/14. The letter with the BT check attached was dated 2/16. I'm not sure the actual date I received the check.

PugRanch, thanks for the info! I guess then I should give it a week or two before ordering checks from PNC. Do you recall by any chance if the checks you received were described as "convenience" checks in whatever paperwork that accompanied them? In other words, do you think if I go to PNC's web-site and order convenience checks, will I get the same checks you got "automagically", or the checks that have purchase (not BT) APR on them?

I still have the letter and check. Actually there are three checks. They are not called convenience checks. They are called "Welcome" checks and the attached letter says:

"[When you use the checks] [t]he balances will be applied to the introductory offer of 0% APR for 12 billing cycles.** When you use these Welcome Checks, no balance transfer fee will be applied.**"

The ** refers to some boilerplate fine print.

So I don't think requesting checks will get you the right checks.

Why do you need BT checks on the Citi Business? Can't you just go to citicards.com and request that they send a check made out to you?

PugRanch said:
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Why do you need BT checks on the Citi Business? Can't you just go to citicards.com and request that they send a check made out to you?

Well, it's a first time I'm dealing with a business credit card ... online actually shows two card numbers (one is the actual card I got). I guess the card I got is an "employee" card, whereas the other number refers to the general account for the business. I made a small purchase this billing cycle and paid it back, however, my available CL did not go back to $40K (the CL on the card). This makes me think smth. may not be working right -- that's, perhaps, the real reason why I want to wait till the first statement comes ...

A note on PNC: I reached $500 in (posted) transactions on 03/13. 03/16 in the morning the $50 credit was already there (no 6-8 week wait mentioned in T&C). I believe, someone else has already reported a fairly similar response time from PNC, so there is now a stronger indication that this bonus is rather straightforward to get.

I think they're referring to your go to rate after the 0% is done. It's the 'qualifying transaction' language that gave me pause. I wrote it to a Mastercard because I don't see anyway they can get around the 0% if it's used to transfer a balance. Though I'm almost 100% certain that you could write the check to cash and it would be 0% and treated as a purchase when the promo expires.

cyberkost, u r my new hero. i didn't see the before/after calculation so I popped your CL's into XLS and pasted the result here.

Existing lines:
$30,000.00
$15,000.00
$25,000.00 (was 12.7k)
$6,100.00
$76,100.00

New lines:
$6,700.00
$40,000.00
$6,000.00
$29,000.00
$20,000.00
$10,400.00
$26,000.00
$6,000.00
$10,000.00
$24,500.00
$24,500.00
$24,500.00
$203,100.00


What I'm really impressed with is the how you maxed each of them to 20-30k most of the time on stated HHI of 100k. It affirms my theory that in AOR's they will let you have around 3x HHI in total CL's.

I suppose a good way to duplicate this is to first get that FICO score beyond 750? I'm really just interested in doing apps that will let me have at least 20k CL right off the bat.

digitil said:cyberkost, u r my new hero. i didn't see the before/after calculation so I popped your CL's into XLS and pasted the result here.


don't know where to start ... it's a tough job to be a hero ... not to mention that many heroes did not end up well ... back to the subject: I'm a bit puzzled how you did the calculation, looks like you have either misread some of the numbers or ignored some of my later posts that gave the details. I put what I believe is an accurate account of the CLs before and after into the summary of the thread. I started out with the total CL of $53.8K and ended up with $247.2K (including $40K on a business card). This was on HHI of $102K and initial FAKO in the 740-750 neighborhood. My oldest card is from 1997, the second oldest is from 2001 ... Anyway, the CL I got from the AOR was somewhat under 2x HHI and my total CL is below 2.5x HHI .. so, I'm not quite sure how you got to the 3x number ... Also, I was somewhat lucky with CLs, especially with AM3X that gave me only $4.5K inititally, but then expanded to $49K. Where my AOR may be "special" is in that I got all $107.2K (+ another $35K which I have hopes for) of BT money directly into checking account via BT checks or ACH. That was my goal to, if possible, not involve more complicated methods (like "laundering" through other cards, using CITI balance refund checks, etc.). I simply think I was not fully prepared to use these "advanced" methods. I do plan to introduce them into my practice, but I prefer to do so in a very controlled low risk environment (and right now is not a good time as I am juggling too many things or too many things juggle me -- depends how you look).

Now, coming back to your 3x number (which I saw you posting in some other threads as well) -- I did not do a stat. analysis, but my impression from all of the AOR-related threads I read here is that the number is more like 2x. Here's a thread with quite a bit of statistics -- have you looked at it?.. Looks like you did ... I've only looked at the first 10 or so reports, and from those the number in question is definitely more like 2x, than 3x ... so I'm not sure how we arrive at the so discreapant numbers looking at the same data ...

Scores started to tank as more and more balances show up. Currently 716/TU 685/EX 703/EQ (OP is updated accordingly). Interestingly, though Providian denied my application, I seem to be getting the Flyer magazine (nothing to die for, judging from April issue).

Well, another not so interesting update (and a much needed bump for this thread).

1. It turned out I incorrectly added all of the BT money. The accurate amount of BT money I got is $165.7K (thread summary is updated accordingly)
2. I'm approaching 70 soft pulls after the AOR, but has not yet seen any bumpage on my TU report (I expect Equifax to be affected even later). I started to worry, as I was exepecting to start seeing the effects before I reach 50, but then other people have pointed out that it may take as many as 80 softs even for TU.
3. My WaMu FICO finally got updated (3 months down the road). TU FICO is 730 (was 775 before the AOR -- interestingly this original score was based on Experian; do they cycle through CRAs or what?). Not too bad given $130K balance on personal cards ...