Diablo's AOR [Stage 3: BT money now sitting in account]

Update: Equifax, 640 to 638, 0 inquiries in the past 6 months (decreased), all cards reporting correctly
TransUnion, 635 to 646, 7 inquiries in the past 6 months (decreased), all cards reporting correctly
Experian: 638 to 628, 5 inquiries in the past 6 months (decreased), all cards reporting correctly

The only thing I can see effecting Equifax and Experian's score drop is Chase transferring $500 from my Sony to my Amazon, I have no new inquiries. Everything but my Sony and Amazon report $0, Amazon usage on all of them report below 25% usage, Chase must have updated right after I paid that month.

Update: I was looking at the wrong reports for the inquries. The updated ones are reflected above.

Update: I'm pushing this to November. I'm now employing b*, and will go when my EQ and TU reports are clear of hard inquiries.

And if you would have actually read the thread, it really is the inquiries dropping the score. There is nothing else besides the age of the cards and the age of the total report, and those cannot be changed except by simply waiting.

markkundinger said:

So... are there any negative items on any of your credit reports? Missed payments? Public records? "Closed by grantor" comments? Anything?

exactly what I was thinking. there's got to be other negatives dropping the score.

Diablo, just do whatever you want to do,

good call on redding my advice, you've got nothing to fix man, it's definitely just the few inquiries keeping you from the 25k limits.

it's probably not your missed payments, public records, closed by grantor or the 1 year history that's giving you the 1k limits.

just go ahead and app it.

AHH! You thought HH meant Hilton.. no, its a Household Bank. Correcting OP post now.

I'm actually ahead of you on that. I'm already at the maximum usage Chase will give me, CapOne you can't ask (I'm not using the card and trying to starve them out), WaMu isn''t old enough to get a CLI on, HSBC cards are known for their tiny limits and I can't use the starve technique against them (sockdrawering cards just causes them to cancel them).

And yeah, I'm trying to set myself up for a 'real' AOR later as my second AOR, this one is only for sign up bonuses when available, and trying to get lines with issuers I don't have lines with yet. Juniper has denied me (tried to get an Apple card), AMEX has denied me two or three times, and Citi recently denied me (thus one additional hard inq I should add to my numbers).

There is one additional factor that you're not discussing: my Chase Sony which is at $1100 of $1500. Paying this off entirely should boost my score maybe 20 points (my CapOne, Household, and WaMu balance this card out to bring my total usage under 50%), but I'd rather not do this except as a last resort, as the money is happily sitting in a savings account and should stay there as long as possible.

There is a myth that states many issuers will dislike you until your history is 2 years old: FWF says this is false, but sometimes I do wonder. I may end up pushing my AOR launch date until mid-next year as you suggested just to avoid this bias, but I want to start as soon as possible.

Also, I have said 'f-that' and tried to entice Citi as I mentioned two paragraphs up, and yeah, they said no. Everyone else I've tried ~6 months ago.

Also, another thing I haven't disclosed, over the past 2 years, I have 18 hard inqs. on TU, and the vast majority of hard inqs I have are on TU. Some of these predate me trying to get credit originally (which, as much as everyone hates CapOne, they were my first issuer allowing me to get my foot in the door with everyone else), so my recent usage of b*ing should eliminate those in the next 3-4 months.

FWF may scoff at 18, but my credit score simply wouldn't matter if no one would have given me credit in the first place, yadda yadda yadda, etc etc etc.

Worse case, I may have to Zen Master it, although I don't like to. I'm trying to start up a business at some point, and one of the reasons I poked Citi was in an attempt to get a card just for that (and to 0% BT whats left on the Chase Sony in May), but, yeah, they said no.

Now, I have tried one thing recently, as a second to last resort: I used PlanetFeedback and said that I wish to become a Citi customer, but I am constantly denied (truth: most of my TU inqs are Citi, and I mentioned this as well), and my credit history is clean and clear and I've never been late, and I was polite as well. I sent that two weeks ago, and there was no response. Oh well, it was worth a try.

FWF is full of good advice, but except for the few issuers I already have, I may just to have to wait my problem out.

You know, I think you probably need to introduce a little Zen Master into things, regardless of what tactic you take. It seems a little bit like you've been bashing your head against a brick wall trying to get new credit. There's really very little point in trying to force results. Sometimes you just need to let it go, rather than just sending citibank a stream of applications like a lovesick teenager.

So, if you decide you don't really want to chase credit, then great, don't. If you decide you want to fire off a stream of apps, then go for it, but then you've got to accept the results (whatever they are) and wait until conditions improve for the next app spree.

markkundinger said: You know, I think you probably need to introduce a little Zen Master into things, regardless of what tactic you take. It seems a little bit like you've been bashing your head against a brick wall trying to get new credit.

This is what I'm saying. i can only wait.

Update:
TU: 639, from 650, 12 inqs in the past 6 months, 15 in the past 2 years * Recent Citi applications screwed my TU score over
EQ: 656, from 649, 0 inqs in the past 6 months, 5 in the past 2 years
EX: 633, from 629, 5 inqs in the past 6 months, 9 in the past 2 years

I predict that even after you bump off all your inquiries, your scores will all still be sub 700, most likely around 670s at highest. I know you state that your scores are only due to inquiries...well I guess we will find out when you bump all of them off from TU and EQ. You know it doesn't hurt to call up the credit reporting companies and ask why the score is so low. If they say inquires and only inquires, then fine, but I am almost positive they will bring out another issue or two. It will only help your chances of having a better AOR, but if you want to live in denial, then that's up to you.

In interesting news, Household just emailed me stating that they've upped my credit limit... from $300 to $400. THANKS HSBC! I appreciate it! (/sarcasm)

Its the end of the month, and its time to play RED DIABLO'S THREEAAAAAAAD!, the AOR thread everyone likes to hate! (Mainly because by 'waiting for November', I mean November 2015...)

First up, congratulations to me! Eq has 0 inquires; however Ex still has a 11, 2 in the past 6 months and TU still has 2, both of them in the past 6 months

Experian has gone from 633 to 606... nothing has changed on my report except for balance on my (PIF'ed) Amazon card going up, and balance on my Sony card going down, and the score trend is not in line with Eq and TU.

Equifax has gone from 656 to 649, and has the same balances listed as Experian, so I really don't get whats wrong with Experian.

TransUnion has gone from 639 to 638, proving Experian is doing drugs, and has the same data listed as Equifax and Experian.

WaMu's score has gone from 637 to 640.

swagatalakshmi said: i don't know how much you know about CAs or AORs but you definitely do no know the fact that no matter how hard you try you can't bump off experian pulls.

You must be new around here. I've personally reminded newbies that Experian cannot be bumped, both on here and on other forums. I am fully aware of that fact, and nothing I have said in this thread has said otherwise.

swagatalakshmi said: With your score and CL , you will end up with some loose change as AOR profit and your CR will tank to probably 500 or less.

Remember one thing dude, credit is like sex - he who wants more, never gets it !!!

Please read a thread before posting in it. I have already stated that I will not start the AOR until my Sony card is paid in full and my score at all three CRAs exceed 700 by a fair margin.

November is finally here... time to move the 'waiting for' date to June.

Changes: Charged a few hundred to the CapOne, paid off part of it, CapOne posted the total balance instead. All three list the same account balances for all my cards.

Equifax: 639, from 649
Experian: 607, from 606. Apparently last month wasn't a glitch, and Experian just changed their formula on how they calculate things, and boned me in the process. I'm hoping it goes away by May. I wonder if its related to CapOne posting my CL since it happened around the same time.
Transunion: 647, from 638
WAMU: 653, from 640

markkundinger said: Well, it looks like your credit score hasn't substantially changed in 6 months.

Still carrying a balance on any cards?

What's the inquiry situation like?

I am carrying a balance on the Sony card, which Chase only wants $23/mo on, and its 0% APR, so I'm in no hurry to pay that off (it will be paid off by May). My Amazon card is always PIF monthly, but Chase never reports $0 but instead some high balance, so thats messing with my score too (I charge like $500 to $750 monthly on a $1000 card, yay rewards programs), so thats why my TU and Eq scores randomly fluctuate (scores go down when the false balance goes up, scores go up when the false balance goes down).

Inquiries haven't changed since I last updated, 0 TU, 0 Eq, 11 Ex with 0 of them in the past 6 months. The earliest Ex to fall off is May and I really really want to clear my Ex of inquiries before I go AORing, so it may be closer to this time next year before I start AORing unless I give up waiting. Since Ex's score is my lowest, and I'm pretty sure its due to either CapOne's CL being reported or a combination of that and the 11 inqs that are making my score absurdly low.

There is one update I need to add however. I called CapOne today (as per this thread) and they upped my limit from $500 to $1000, so I expect my score to go up before next month's update.

Are you paying more than minimum payments? Are you paying in advance of the statement close to reduce your reportable balances (if you're planning to make a larger payment, splitting it in two and paying the bulk before statement close reduced your reported balance and utilization).

Getting CLIs seem to be a logical next step for a while, as low limits (and resulting higher utilization) may be dragging your score down.

DiabloD3 said: Updates:
Eq 659 from 639 (highest in record, beating Sept 2007)
TU 675 from 647 (second highest, second to April 2007)
Ex 633 from 607 (back up to Sept 2007 levels)
WAMU 609 from 653 (*shrug*, WAMU's score is a month behind)

Ex still has 11 inqs (0 in past 6 months), the rest 0.

So, my scores seem to be going up a fair bit (between 20 and 28 points) due to CapitalOne reporting my new $1k limit, leaving WAMU and Household behind (now I wonder if I can get them to match it...).

Currently I'm worried that I won't have the cash available* to pay off all the Sony card without incurring interest. Should I just take penalty of interest, or should I BT it to another card in March/April? Most banks seem to want a 3% fee, but thats better than paying 20% APR for a few months. This, of course, would leave me with an inq on one of my reports, and if it ends up being an inq to Ex I'm screwed.

So what does FWF suggest?

I suggest you pay off your debt and start using cash until the time comes where you are content with your credit scores and ready to do an AOR.
Maybe in the 5 months you plan to wait your credit lines will automatically get increased (some issuers are known to do this), and all will grow older regardless.

I know exactly how hard it is to wait for something like this, it took me a month longer than I thought it would to do my AOR, but with the patients of a 23 year old(not much) I benefited greatly from listening to the wisdom on FWF and clearing up the details in the process. Hopefully you can conjure up the patients you will need so you do not jump the gun, as it looks like you have already waited quite a while. I will be subscribing to this thread due to the persistence you have in updating the d*mn thing and related passion to do this.

*Edit: I also gave the thread a green for the above reason

Purely FYI, when I did my AOR I had 16 inquires on my Experian report. About half of the issuers pulled the report from experian when I did my AOR, maybe they know about bumpage. Anyways, that did not prevent them from giving me the sweet deals (so far I am amassing over 150k in 0% money), but I did have close to 1% utilization right before and 132000 in CL. The best one for me to request a CLI on was AMEX. I do not know if this is still the case but they never pulled my report and contrary to reports, did no financial review even when my CLI went up to 37000. I do not suggest, in your situation, to go and request 25k on your AMEX card, but that is the best one to get a CLI without a hard pull. If you do not want to risk it on the website, call them up and ask if they are going to pull your report for a request.The HHonors card was the one I started with, after 30 days of having it they were already increasing my limits over 10k I believe. Just ask for something small like 5k with no hard pull, I bet you get it.

*Edit: My bad, I do not see HHonors listed in your original post. Didn't I read you had it somewhere in the thread?

DiabloD3 said: As for PIF'ing the Amazon, I basically keep paying at the wrong time to prevent Chase from saying I owe them a ton of money (when I really don't). From what I've seen, its reported at max 75% full, usually somewhere between 50% and 75%. However, shouldn't $1900 of no utilization be balancing stuff out? At any rate, I think the correct time to pay is in a small blind spot where I don't have the funds to do so (shortly after the statement is generated, but before I get the bulk of my money).The correct time to pay is prior to the statement generating - if your statement close date is 11/29, make sure the payment posts on 11/28. It reports the statement balance, so even if you pay it off the day after the statement generates it will still report the statement balance.

And yes, the extra $1900 in unsued credit helps mitigate the damage, but the high utilization on two accounts is still dragging your score down. If you are using the 0% money to finance your business then fine, but if you can pay it off you may boost your scores enough to get a business card to continue financing your business with. If you can get both Chase cards to report $0, your scores could jump as much as 50+ points across the board.

DiabloD3 said: Glitch99 said: And yes, the extra $1900 in unsued credit helps mitigate the damage, but the high utilization on two accounts is still dragging your score down. If you are using the 0% money to finance your business then fine, but if you can pay it off you may boost your scores enough to get a business card to continue financing your business with. If you can get both Chase cards to report $0, your scores could jump as much as 50+ points across the board.

Oh really? I was thinking it'd just jump it up another 25 or so; now thats interesting.Just a guess, no guarantees - but you do have two huge balances (huge in relation to the limits), so they're probably having a bigger impact than you think. Yes, your short history is also a factor (in both your score and CL size), but your balances are primarily whats holding back approvals. Try to get your daily-use card paid off by the statement date so it updates with a zero balance, and see what it does for your score; you can then assume paying off the other Chase card will have an equal, if not bigger, effect.

With what you have revealed - no negative info, no other loans/debts - and assuming a decent income to list on an application (which I dont think you've mentioned), with 1 yr+ history and no outstanding balances you should be able to pull a $3-5000 limit on a mainstream issuer (BofA, AMEX, Citi).