DaBunker's AOR - in planning stage

Hi, I'm a longtime lurker who's decided to jump into the AOR arena. Many thanks to all the pioneers, optimizers, and other hardy (and some fool-hardy) souls that have mapped out this terrain and all its hazards. I'd appreciate any comments on the AOR I'm planning and, once executed, I'll update with results.

Thanks to: FWF; SIS & the AOR Academy; cyberkost, WashWest101, Rasher, Hindustani, psychtobe, PugRanch, sumeyedea, snafu123, edlin303, and 2Cor521 for their recent and detailed AOR summaries.

AOR Goals:
* Increase available credit to ultimately increase credit scores in 9 mo - 1 yr
* Get easily accessible 0% BT cash-money
* Get FF miles & other easily commoditized rewards


Pre-AOR credit stats:
FICOs free-ish thx to SleekWallet - TU: 695, EQ: 730 EX: ???
Oldest card - 8 years, but most cards are 3 years or younger; 2 new ones in the last 2 months
Largest CLs - $25k Am3x, $25k Chase
Recent activity - a handful of inquiries for new bank & CC accounts in last 3 months
Other debt - $100k in student loans
HHI - $200k (thanks to multiple wage-earners in household)

Issuer distribution:
Am3x - 2 personal, 1 biz, 1 no-limit
Chase - 2 personal (but both co-branded)
Citi - 1 professional (any different from personal?)
Discover - 1 personal
Misc department store - 1

CC Applications Under Consideration: [incentives] [BT terms]
Personal:
Amex In: Cardoffer $40, 0% BT, no-fee, 6mo
BofA Financial Rewards Visa Platinum Plus Cardoffer $30, 0% BT, no-fee, 6mo
BofA NEA WorldPoints Platinum Plus MC 0% BT, 2% fee, 12 mo
BofA WorldPoints Platinum MC $75 statement credit after 1st purchase, 0% BT & cash advance, 3% fee, 12 mo
Chase Free Cash Rewards Visa 1k points = $25 gift card, 0% BT, 3% fee, 12 mo
Citi AT&T Universal Rewards Cardoffer $30, 6k points = $50 gift card, 0% BT, no fee, 12 mo
Citi Simplicity Rewards Card $100 gift card, 0% BT, no fee, 12 mo
Commerce Platinum Visa 2.99% BT, no fee, 6 mo
Discover Miles Cardoffer $40, 1k miles per month-charged, 0% BT, fee??, til 3/08
Juniper I Fly America Visa $15 statement credit, 0% BT & convenience checks, 3% fee, 12 mo
PNC Select Rewards Platinum Visa 0% BT, no-fee, 12 mo
RBS Kroger 1-2-3 Rewards 0% BT, 3% fee, 12 mo
State Farm Good Neighbor Visa 0% BT, 3% fee, 12 mo
US Bank Northwest WorldParks Visa Platinum 800-360-2900 x6487 10k miles after 1st purch, annual fee waived for 1st year
US Bank Northwest WorldPerks Visa Signature 800-360-2900 x6487 15k miles after 1st purch, same deal w/ annual fee

Business:
Advanta Platinum Business with Rewards Cardoffers $50, 0% BT, 3% fee, 15 mo
American Express Business Gold Reswards20k points, not to be used for BT, annual fee waived for 1st year
Chase / First USA UPS Capital Visa Business Rewards Card 0% BT, 3%, 12 mo
CitiBusiness Card with Thank You Network 10k or 15k points, 0% BT, no-fee, 12 mo
US Bank Northwest WorldPerks Visa Business Card 800-796-4650 x1677 15k miles, same deal w/ annual fee as above

Bank Apps:
HSB Interest Checking $75 bonus, no-fee w/ dd or $3k min balance
LaSalle Direct Plus Checking $100 bonus, no-fee w/ dd or billpay

Any thoughts on max apps or cards per issuer, issuer mix, or other good opportunities? I don't mind a few rejections, but would prefer to avoid FR w/ Am3x since they have my oldest card. Thanks in advance!

Updates: Fixed links, added Am3x business gold rewards, substituted Discover Miles for Gas.

Hope you are a teacher..... under terms of service of BofA NEA WorldPoints Platinum Plus MC you linked in bold about 1/2 down it you will find the following:

The NEA is not involved in the credit decision process; standard credit procedures are followed. All applications are subject to confidential standard review by FIA Card Services, N.A. Absolutely NO membership dues are used to market this program.

The NEA Credit Card Program® has been developed for NEA members and their families only. If a member decided not to renew membership, that person and his/her family will no longer be eligible to receive the preferred rates, fees and special promotions offered through the NEA Credit Card Program. If eligible, a replacement card will be offered. Any account opened in response to this offer will be governed by the laws of the State of Delaware.

All the BofA 0% BT offers I see have 3% uncapped fee, wouldn't that eat up most of the return if you put that money in a MMA?

dolmar said: Hope you are a teacher...

Unfortunately not! That BofA NEA card has 2% BT fee capped at $30. Any idea what they do to check your affiliation?

Thanks djspray & limey. I'll take a look at the other airline cards. Djspray - I wonder why those cards you mention give so many more miles than USBank? That's a full free ticket waiting to be had!

DaBunker said: dolmar said: Hope you are a teacher...

Unfortunately not! That BofA NEA card has 2% BT fee capped at $30. Any idea what they do to check your affiliation?

No Idea how they verify if you are a teacher. But lying on bank or credit card application is bank fraud. And according to terms of the service if they do find out you are were never or no longer a teacher then "if a member decided not to renew membership, that person and his/her family will no longer be eligible to receive the preferred rates, fees and special promotions offered" which I guess means they could retro actively apply an uncapped BT fee, jack up interest rates imidiately ie mid month which would force you pay interest till you paid the balance off at a ridiculous high rate of something like 29.9%, take way any promo BT rate, close all BOA accounts, etc. And you would have no recoarse either as you lied on the orginally app which makes all of there adverse actions valid and justified. Best possible outcome could be they closed your account and ask for imidiate repayment.

Why take a chance on something like this anyways. Any possibe benfit would disappear if any of the above adverse actions were taken against you.

Most people tend to apply for BOA card and leave $0 balance on them never use them for BT but to help there over all credit utilization %.

Hey OP, thanks for the cite!

If your Discover card was opened too recently, you may get a rejection based on that. My card was about 6 months old when I applied and I got rejected -- see my AOR thread.

Also, I was approved for 3 AM3X biz cards in my AOR with very generous limits.

2Cor521

I dont think BOA has anymore Capped BT Promo's for 12 months. But even at 3% uncapped you can still make a profit on BT. If you get lucky like Scott(see his App-o-Rama) and get a nice BT rep they do sometimes agree to cap the fee at $75 but again that is YMMV. Also if you get in the mail one of there pre-screened offers they tend to have capped fees like one I got about 1 month which I used in my App-o-rama.

Why not Citi Diamond Preferred 0% for life (with F1K7 code)? Citi seems to give pretty low CL, though, so the $75 BT fee might not be worth the extended 0% period if you don't have other Citi cards to reallocate.

The PNC card gives $50 credit after $500 purchase, didn't see that you listed that. Might be too much trouble, but my credit was made immediately after reaching $500. I paid it off, then did BT.

I second the Discover Miles card vs. the Gas card. Remember to reallocate your CL if you want.

LOL at the "multiple" wage earners in HH, you in Utah? (kidding)

Well, maybe not low, but not high in our case either. We have 10 Citi cards, all between 7000 and 15000 (actually, my wife and I got the exact same CL for the same 3 cards in the respective AOR a year apart from each other).

Anyway, that wasn't my point, I was just mentioning the Citi 0% for life offer really...

Are you positive you've never been in the Witness Protection Program?

How are you planning for balance transfers? All cards won't offer convenience checks.

dolmar said: Hope you are a teacher..... under terms of service of BofA NEA WorldPoints Platinum Plus MC you linked in bold about 1/2 down it you will find the following:

The NEA is not involved in the credit decision process; standard credit procedures are followed. All applications are subject to confidential standard review by FIA Card Services, N.A. Absolutely NO membership dues are used to market this program.

The NEA Credit Card Program® has been developed for NEA members and their families only. If a member decided not to renew membership, that person and his/her family will no longer be eligible to receive the preferred rates, fees and special promotions offered through the NEA Credit Card Program. If eligible, a replacement card will be offered. Any account opened in response to this offer will be governed by the laws of the State of Delaware.

... and I thought I read T&C carefully ... I applied for this card, and got the second largest CL ($25K) of all the cards I got in my recent AOR ... What do I do now? Call BofA and tell them them that I overlooked smth. in T&C? Or just keep the card with the only benefit being lower overall utilization?

perfectsilence said: All the BofA 0% BT offers I see have 3% uncapped fee, wouldn't that eat up most of the return if you put that money in a MMA?

This is the reason I avoided all BOA cards in my AOR started 2 days ago. I'm not a teacher and could not find a single card w/ a capped fee for BT at 0% for 9 months or more.