Similar to Unbelieevable, I went ahead and took the plunge yesterday without putting up a thread beforehand. I've spent the last several weeks reading through virtually all of the recent AOR threads as well as SIS' AOR FAQ, a few of DaveHanson's FAQs about FICO, etc. I'm the type that researches stuff to death (i.e. reading the same stuff over and over again) and decided it was just time to get it done.
A big thanks to SIS, DaveHanson, and others who started useful threads and/or continue to comment on threads, as well as those with recent AOR threads (PugRanch, psychtobe, Isifhan, cyberkost, unbelieevable, edlin303, etc.).
Goals 1. Collect rewards/miles/points 2. BT 0% monies to HYS accounts 3. Acquire cards from new banks
Credit Scores Before Trans: 772 Equifax: 759 Experian: 771
Pre-AOR Accounts Current Cards / Limit / Age / Utilization: AMEX Skymiles Plat. / $15,000 / 7.5 yrs / 25% (higher than usual) BOA Worldpoints Plat. MC/ $7,500 / 10 yrs / 9% FIA Schwab Worldpoints Visa / $5,000 / 1 yr / 0% Citi AA MC / $11,500 / 10 mos / 0%
Other than my mortgage, I have no other revolving or installment accounts open.
Personal Info HHI: between $75k and $100k Mortgage: $1550 Age: 32 Length of Emp: 10 years
Cards Applied For (listed in order applied for) ( Bonus / BT Promo Info/Annual Fee/ Purchase Req /(Current Status w/CL): Amex Business Gold Rewards Card /25,000 Rewards Points/no BT special/Ann Fee waived 1 year/1 purch for bonus (Approved) Amex Preferred Gold Rewards /10,000 Rewards Points/no BT special/Ann Fee waived 1 year/1 purch for bonus (Immediately Approved) CitiBusiness AAdvantage MasterCard /20,000 miles/no BT special/Ann Fee waived 1 year/$250 purch for bonus (Approved $25,000 CL) CitiBusiness PremierPass with Thank You /15,000 TY points and $10 card offers/12month 0%, no BT fees/Ann Fee waived 1 year/1 purch for bonus (Approved $25,000 CL) CitiProfessional with TY /15,000 TY pts/12month 0%, no BT fees/No Annual Fee/1 purch for bonus(Immediately Approved $3,000 CL) CitiBusiness with TY /15,000 TY pts /12month 0%, no BT fees/No Annual Fee/1 purch for bonus (Approved $15,000 CL) Chase Business United Mileage Platinum Plus / 25,000 United Miles/no special/Ann Fee waived 1 year/$250 purch for bonus (Approved $15,000 CL) Chase United Mileage Plus Visa Signature /25,000 United Miles/no special/Ann Fee waived 1 year/$250 purch for bonus (Approved $15,000 CL) Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX /10K SPG points, $40 card offers/no special/Ann Fee waived 1 year/1 purch for bonus (Immediately Approved $10,000 CL) Starwood Preferred Guest Business AMEX /10K SPG points, $75 card offers/no special/Ann Fee waived 1 year/1 purch for bonus (Immediately Approved $25,000 CL) Discover Miles / $40 card offers, 1,000 miles/month for 12 mos w/purchase each month AND 0% new purchases)/12month 0%, No fee/no ann fee/ 1 purch/month for bonus (Immediately Approved $8,000 CL) Juniper Fly America Visa / $15 statement credit after first usage /12month, 3%, $50 cap /No ann fee/ (Immediately Approved $15,000 CL) PNC Select Rewards Platinum Visa / $50 statement credit / 12month 0%, no BT fees/No Annual Fee/$500 purch for bonus (Immediately Approved $10,000 CL) AT&T Universal Rewards Card (CITI) /6,000 TY pts/12month 0%, no BT fees/No Annual Fee/1 purch for bonus/ (Approved $7,500 CL) SonyStyle Chase /$100 statement credit and 0% for new purchases/12month 0%, 3%, $75cap /No Annual Fee/1 purch for bonus (Immediately Approved $5,000 CL) Also applied for BoA Platinum Business Card on 3/23 (targeted offer) - no rewards/9 months 0%, no BT fees /No Annual Fee (Approved $12,500 CL)
I started later in the day than I planned, about 11:00 ET (was still researching, and working) and it took a couple hours to complete (also due to work), but I was pleasantly surprised with the number of immediate approvals I received.
Total Applied for: 16 (16 Approved as of 4/2/07) Immediate approval: 8 Deferred approval: 8 Denied: 0 Pending: 0
Total Cards by Issuer: AMEX: 4 Total - 2 Business and 2 Personal Citi: 5 Total - 3 Business and 2 Personal Chase: 3 Total - 1 Business and 2 Personal Juniper: 1 Personal Discover: 1 Personal PNC: 1 Personal BoA: 1 Business
Credit Scores Including major changes and/or updates Date EQ EXP TU 3/20 759 771 772 (via Citi Credit monitoring) 3/21 759 771 772 (found out that Citi only updates reports/scores every 30 days?!?!) 3/22 726 719 760 (switched to True Credit) 3/23 742 725 760 (Juniper (Barclays) card showing in all three) 3/24 739 725 760 3/26 739 732 760 (Discover Card showing in all three) 3/27 726 729 766 3/28-4/01 (no changes) 4/02 726 725 760 (PNC Card now showing in EXP) 4/03 726 725 760 4/04 726 725 758 4/05 726 725 758 4/06 726 704 758 (Citi Professional card showing up in EXP) 4/07-4/09 (no changes) 4/10 750 704 758 (PNC and Citi Professional cards showing up in EQ) 4/11 750 698 758 (ATT now in EXP) 4/12 750 698 758 4/13 748 698 758 (Citi MC AA showed up closed on EXP) 4/14 748 698 758 (AT&T showed up in EQ; United personal showed up in EXP) 4/15 (didn't pull) 4/16 748 688 758 (Sony showed up in EXP with BT balance) 4/17 748 688 758 (United and Sony showed up in EQ) 4/18-4/20 (no changes) 4/21 748 678 722 (PNC, Citi Prof, ATT, United and Sony showed up in TU; Disc has BT balance in EXP) 4/22-4/23 TrueCredit down 4/24 748 676 715 (Juniper BT balance on TU and EXP; Discover BT balance on TU; United showing in EXP) 4/25 712 676 715 (Juniper and Discover BT balances in EQ) 4/26-4/30 (no changes) 5/01 745 676 715 (Starwood and AMEX Gold showing in EQ) 5/02 745 678 715 (Starwood and AMEX Gold in EXP) 5/03 745 678 715 (PNC BT balance in EXP) 5/04 745 678 706 (Starwood and AMEX Gold in TU) 5/05 745 678 702 (PNC BT balance in TU) 5/06-5/07 (no changes) 5/08 704 671 702 (PNC BT balance in EQ; Citi Prof BT balance in EXP) 5/09-5/10 (no changes) 5/11 702 671 693 (Citi Prof BT balance in EQ and TU) 5/12-5/13 (no changes) 5/14 702 668 693 (ATT BT balance in EXP) 5/15 702 668 693 (ATT BT balance in EQ; EQ Sony balance reduced to 49%) 5/16 702 668 693 (ATT BT balance in TU; TU Sony balance reduced to 49%) 5/17 702 671 693 (EXP Sony balance reduced to 49%) 5/18 715 671 693 (PNC balance paid off (temporarily) in EQ) 5/19-5/20 (no changes) 5/21 715 671 697 (2 inquires fell off TU) 5/22 715 671 697 5/23 715 671 700 (1 inquiry fell off TU) 5/24 715 671 705 (1 inquiry fell off TU; Discover balance reduced to 49% in TU) 5/25 722 671 707 (1 inquiry fell off TU; Discover balance reduced to 49% in EQ) 5/26-5/28 (didn't pull) 5/29 722 671 729 (PNC balance paid off (temporarily) in TU) 5/30-6/03 (didn't pull) 6/04 728 678 739 (Last inquiry fell off TU; Discover balance reduced to 49% in EX) 6/05 728 678 739 6/06-6/07 (no changes) 6/08 732 678 739 6/09-6/13 (no changes) 6/14 732 681 739 6/15-6/19 (no changes) 6/20 734 681 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 6/21 737 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 6/22 739 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 6/23 741 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 6/24 (didn't pull) 6/25 744 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 6/26 746 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 6/27 748 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 6/28-7/1 (no changes) 7/02 750 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 7/03 753 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 7/04 (didn't pull) 7/05 755 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 7/06 758 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 7/07 (didn't pull) 7/08 759 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 7/09 761 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 7/10 763 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 7/11-7/12 (no changes) 7/13 767 691 739 (1 inquiry fell of EQ) 7/14-7/31 (no changes)
Inquiries: BRCLYSBANKDE 03/21/2007 TransUnion CITIBANKNA 03/21/2007 Equifax FIRST USA 03/21/2007 Equifax CITI 03/21/2007 Equifax ELANFINSVC 03/21/2007 Equifax BKONE 03/21/2007 Equifax CITI USA 03/21/2007 Equifax CBUSA/CBSD 03/21/2007 Equifax AMEX 03/21/2007 Experian DISCOVER FIN 03/21/2007 Experian FIA CSNA 03/23/2007 Equifax BANK OF AMERICA 03/27/2007 Experian OHIOSV ADO 04/13/2007 Equifax
Available Credit before and after AOR: Acounts before: AMEX Skymiles Plat. $15,000 BOA Worldpoints Plat. MC $7,500 FIA Schwab Worldpoints Visa $5,000 Citi AA MC $11,500 - Total CL Before AOR: $39,000
Accounts after AOR: AMEX Skymiles Plat. $24,500 (CLI) BOA Worldpoints Plat. MC $20,000 (CLI) FIA Schwab Worldpoints Visa $10,000 (CLI) Citi AA MC $0 AMEX Business Gold (no preset limit) AMEX Preferred Gold (no preset limit) CitiBusiness AA MC $2,000 (reallocated $23,000 to CitiProfessional) CitiBusiness PremierPass $25,000 CitiProfessional $26,000 ($23k from CitiBus AA) CitiBusiness TY $15,000 Chase United Mileage Business $15,000 Chase United Mileage $1,000 (reallocated $14,000 to Sony) Starwood Preferred Guest $24,500 (CLI) Starwood Preferred Guest Business $25,000 Discover Miles $8,000 Juniper Fly America $15,000 PNC Select Rewards Platinum $20,000 (CLI) AT&T Universal Rewards $19,000 (Consolidated Citi AA into ATT) Sony $20,000 ($14,000 from United) BoA PLatinum Business $12,500 -Total CL After AOR: $282,500 - Total Personal CL: $162,000 - Total Business CL: $120,500
Completed Balance Transfers Sony - $17,600 (Used BT check provided with card) Discover - $7,040 (Used BT check mailed to me) Citi Professional - $22,880 (Used BT check mailed to me) Juniper - $13,200 (Used BT check provided with card) BoA Business - $12,000 (BT over phone to Citi Professional) Citi Business - $13,650 (Via web site; split between Sony and Juniper CCS) PNC - $17,600 (Used BT check mailed to me) AT&T - $16,720 (Used BT check requested via web site) Citi Business PP - $22,250 (Via web site; split between PNC, Discover and BoA Biz) - Totals: $142,940
Rewards/Bonuses Expected While I'll probably use many of the points for flights, I'll put an estimated value in GCs for ease of providing a total value. From AOR: 35,000 AMEX Rewards Pts = ~$350 in Gift Cards (received a/o 5/7/07) 51,000 Thank You Points = ~$500 in GCs (51,000 points received a/o 5/11/07) 20,000 Starwood Preferred Guest = ~$200 in GCs (received a/o 4/23/07) $195 Card Offers Cash ($195 received a/o 7/3/07) $165 worth of statement credits (all received a/o 4/24/07) 12,000 miles from Discover (1,000/month for 12 months) = ~$100 GC value 50,000 United Airlines Miles = ~$500 value (received a/o 4/26/07) 20,000 American Airlines Miles (for CC) = ~$200 value (received a/o 4/23/07) Other/bank signup bonuses: 25,000 American Airlines Miles (for Fidelity account) = ~$250 value (received a/o 4/27/07) $100 signup bonus (for Fidelity account) = (received on 4/12/07) 7,500 MyPoints (for E-LOAN account) = ~$50 GC (received 6/8/07) ----------------------------- Total = $2,610 estimated value (~$2,510 received a/o 7/3/07)
Interesting Observations/Notes: 1) While some have mentioned the limit on CitiBusiness cards to 2, I was approved for and received 3 different CitiBusiness cards, in addition to the Citi Professional card. 2) I was able to successfully reallocate CL from the CitiBusiness AA card to the CitiProfessional card. 3) Post AOR, I've increased CLIs on existing DeltaAMEX, BoA Worldpoints and Schwab, and new Starwood AMEX and PNC Personal cards. 4) I've received the following BT checks: Sony (with card), Juniper (with card), Discover (per request), Citi Professional (welcome checks), PNC (welcome checks) and BoA business (welcome checks). 5) I was able to BT from the BoA business card to the Citi Professional quasi-personal/business card. 6) Successfully BT'd from Citi Business to Sony and Juniper personal cards (via web site). 7) For BoA checking, my BT check deposits via ATM appear in account balance next day, regardless of amount. Those done via teller are put on hold.
Definitely interested in opinions or insights from others. Willing to answer questions as well.
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Citi monitoring sucks, only 1 pull every 30 days. Get something better. Did you try getting an AMEX CLI Pre-AOR? You may have gotten higher limits if you did, and waited for it to report.
Question: Even though I'm in the middle of an AOR, should I join True Credit or could that cause a credit inquiry and potentially impact pending decisions? I assume joining True Credit and pulling my credit scores would act like bumpage, but want to make sure it won't have adverse affects in the middle of an AOR.
Inquiries: ???no clue due to lack of monitoring right now
Just getting started on this and will plan to update as more information comes in. Definitely interested in opinions or insights from others. Get TrueCredit, It will have no adverse affects. Kind of fun pulling on a daily basis to see the affects. Your score might actual go up a little at first as you show a higher credit limit. Also is good a way to see what's happening with those pending's, Many times you will find the account on TrueCredit before you get a reply from issuer
PolarDude said:Citi monitoring sucks, only 1 pull every 30 days. Get something better. Did you try getting an AMEX CLI Pre-AOR? You may have gotten higher limits if you did, and waited for it to report.
Yeah, didn't realize how bad it sucked until today. I didn't try the the CLI pre-AOR because I was ready to try one. In hindsight, perhaps I should've waited on my AOR, but was anxious to get started.
scott1961 said:Get TrueCredit, It will have no adverse affects. Kind of fun pulling on a daily basis to see the affects. Your score might actual go up a little at first as you show a higher credit limit. Also is good a way to see what's happening with those pending's, Many times you will find the account on TrueCredit before you get a reply from issuer
Joined TrueCredit and updated credit scores and inquiries based on new information.
Surprised the Experian score dropped so much in one day (with only two inquiries), but that could also be due to the differences in how Citi and TrueCredit calculate these scores.
ahself said:Joined TrueCredit and updated credit scores and inquiries based on new information.
Surprised the Experian score dropped so much in one day (with only two inquiries), but that could also be due to the differences in how Citi and TrueCredit calculate these scores. TrueCredit shows Experian at 728 for me while EQ and TU our both over 780. Also I use myFICO.com for real FICO scores, Which you might also want to get, and Experian their is 787. So not sure why it's so low on TrueCredit
So if I get this right, since Citi Credit monitoring does not update the score every day, does that mean we cannot perform daily pull for bumpage purpose?
I think you will probably get one of those CitiBusiness apps rejected (max of two). However, you can probably apply for one or two of their pesonal cards.
I hope you will be able to do some serious credit line reallocation before BT'ing. What do you plan on doing with the 0% money? Since you seem to like miles, I'd recommend using $50,000 to open up a Fidelity account, and get miles +$100.
markkundinger said:I hope you will be able to do some serious credit line reallocation before BT'ing. What do you plan on doing with the 0% money? Since you seem to like miles, I'd recommend using $50,000 to open up a Fidelity account, and get miles +$100.
Since I don't have any loans, HELOC or otherwise, to pay down, the plan is to reallocate and then put the money into an E-LOAN, ING or other high interest account or two. I'll check out the Fidelity idea...thanks.
CC Approval Status: Approved for all 4 AMEX cards applied for. FYI, AMEX application status is an easy way to check your status online. Probably known by some, but may be useful to others who weren't aware. I chose not to call Citi or Chase yet since I applied for five and four cards respectively...wish there was a way to check status online like with AMEX.
Credit Scores: Noticed my Equifax and Experian scores bumped up some.
BTW, I received an email from BOA (who I bank with) letting me know I have been preselected for a Bank of America Platinum VisaŽ Business Credit Card with a CL of up to $35k. "0% Introductory APR on balance transfers (not purchases or cash advances) for the first 9 billing cycles. There are no balance transfer fees with introductory transfers. No Annual Fee."
Any reason I shouldn't take them up on this? Also, would this be the perfect opportunity to request a BT to my BOA debit card (i.e. request the BT on my application)?
ahself said:BTW, I received an email from BOA (who I bank with) letting me know I have been preselected for a Bank of America Platinum VisaŽ Business Credit Card with a CL of up to $35k. "0% Introductory APR on balance transfers (not purchases or cash advances) for the first 9 billing cycles. There are no balance transfer fees with introductory transfers. No Annual Fee."
Any reason I shouldn't take them up on this? Also, would this be the perfect opportunity to request a BT to my BOA debit card (i.e. request the BT on my application)?
I wish my BOA card gave me that deal. Couldn't get them to waive the fee or reduce it significantly or anything. They told me that on a $20,000 BT at 3% that it would normally be $600, but they would reduce the fees to $550. HA! Forget I even asked! I even tried calling back the next day and asking with another CSR and still no dice.
By the way, I noticed you applied for 3 CITIBusiness cards...I'm curious to see if you get approved for all 3. I applied for the CitiProfessional, Citi Universal, and 2 CitiBiz cards. I was approved for all of them, so I (2 weeks after my AOR) applied for the Citi DiamondPreferred as well(that reminds me - I need to add that to my AOR thread) and was approved for that. I'm wondering if I should have thrown another Biz card in there.
I also recommend jumping on the BofA offer. Their BT offers usually aren't that great (tend to have uncapped fees), so I wouldn't expect much better than that one.
Well, I applied for the BoA offer last night and wasn't approved immediately. It could be because I requested a BT to my debit card on my application. I chose to go this route rather than BT via checks or another option because the Ts&Cs clearly stated 0% APR on BTs for "non-check BTs". It could also be because I requested a BT of $19.5k...wasn't sure how high to go considering what they stated my limit could be. Maybe I'll still get approved. I assume I was targeted for the offer prior to my AOR because I also received the exact same offer in the mail today.
Also, my Equifax score dropped three points as the BoA inquiry showed up with them. Amazing how many of the inquiries have been with Equifax. I noticed that many of Unbelieevable's inquiries tracked similar to mine and were with Equifax while Cyberkost's appeared to be split up pretty even between Transunion and Experian. I seem to remember reading that inquiries with the different credit bureau's are related to where you live, but not sure.
ahself said:Well, I applied for the BoA offer last night and wasn't approved immediately. It could be because I requested a BT to my debit card on my application. I chose to go this route rather than BT via checks or another option because the Ts&Cs clearly stated 0% APR on BTs for "non-check BTs". It could also be because I requested a BT of $19.5k...wasn't sure how high to go considering what they stated my limit could be. Maybe I'll still get approved. I assume I was targeted for the offer prior to my AOR because I also received the exact same offer in the mail today.
Also, my Equifax score dropped three points as the BoA inquiry showed up with them. Amazing how many of the inquiries have been with Equifax. I noticed that many of Unbelieevable's inquiries tracked similar to mine and were with Equifax while Cyberkost's appeared to be split up pretty even between Transunion and Experian. I seem to remember reading that inquiries with the different credit bureau's are related to where you live, but not sure.
BofA is notorious for offering a high credit limit(my preapproved application says upto 25K). However, when I applied, I got a measly 1.5K credit limit. Hope it's not the case for you.
ahself said:Also, my Equifax score dropped three points as the BoA inquiry showed up with them. Amazing how many of the inquiries have been with Equifax. I noticed that many of Unbelieevable's inquiries tracked similar to mine and were with Equifax while Cyberkost's appeared to be split up pretty even between Transunion and Experian. I seem to remember reading that inquiries with the different credit bureau's are related to where you live, but not sure.
Most of the inquiries for my AOR were with EQ too. I've signed up for the Equifax 30-day free trial of their credit watch Gold product so I can pull my report daily at EQ alone as an addition to the triple pull I do daily using TrueCredit to help get the inquiries off of EQ faster, since it will be twice a day there.
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