Ah, yes. The elusive "should have been following that thread since it has become important and over 100 posts" thread.

I also find that I get a different answer with a different Citi CSR each time I call. It has ranged from "We don't allow any consolidation at all" to "You cannot consolidate any 0% offers" to "You can only consolidate a Visa to Visa or MC to MC" to "Sure we can consolidate that for you, would you like me to enter in the request?".

gorenbeinx said:Just to clarify, you entered your savings account# with USAA for a BT with M&T Bank and not a 16 dig. debit card number?

correct. used the deposits-by-mail address and my less-than-16-digit savings account number. YMMV, of course.

yet another Citi reallocation update - Checked online today, and no reallocation. Called Citi. This time (should have done this earlier), I immediately asked to speak with a supervisor. Supervisor says you can't move the CL from an AM.EX CARD. Visa or MC, no problem. Asked to convert the Diamond AMEX to a Dividend Platinum Master Card. Once the conversion goes through, I'll try again with the reallocation. Damn, what a PITA.

Don't they realize we're just trying to milk them for every dollar possible?

lhendricks92 said:BankAtlantic Biz - Got the card on Saturday and immediately called for a BT. Had to leave $250 available CL, so I uncorked a $19675 BT (+$75 BT fee). Showed up 2 days later on my Fidelity billpay card.

Is this card your American Express Gold Fidelity debit card?

updated the QS with my "final" numbers. as an example of the power of business credit, let me point out a couple of things:

In total, I'm currently floating $278K in 0% BT balances. Of that total, only $95K is personal debt; thus, my overall personal utilization is a whopping 23%. all of my new debt has appeared on my credit reports, and my EQ FICO is still around 760.

Two days ago, I got a targeted BofA Business MasterCard offer for 0% for 12 months with a capped fee. Think that would have happened if I had trashed my personal score? Prolly not.

markkundinger said:lh, I just noticed that M&T's personal cards are issued by FIA, and their business cards are issued by Elan. That's crazy. What kind of deal did you have on the M&T card, btw, a 6mo 0% offer?


yep, 6 months. There are a whole slew of élan business deals for 0%, 6 months, no fees.


markkundinger said:Well, it probably would have, since they credit report they used to target you was probably a few months old.

good point, but a few months ago, i was using the same strategy. unless they pulled during the very small window between my first and second AORs, they would have seen my less-than-perfect-but-not-trashed FICO.


markkundinger said:I would like to be a bit of a wet blanket and mention one thing about your enthusiasm for business cards: You actually have a real business, don't you?. Which banks asked you for business specific sales/earnings info, and what did you put in for those?

Another good point, but I'm not convinced the amount of business income really matters. Look at MikeR's data points. What really matters is your personal credit - that's what's being evaluated (mostly) for business credit. Very few of the business cards I applied for wanted more info than gross sales. Our gross sales aren't excessive – currently about $45K/year. (They used to be much higher – damn I miss the heady IT days of the late 90s/early 2000s.) Numbers that are certainly not enough to justify the business CL I’ve been able to attract.

Yes, I have been aggressive in championing business credit, but it’s only because I want to see other people max out their BT profits with minimal personal credit damage. I enjoy having my cake and eating it, too, don’t you?

lhendricks92 said:Two days ago, I got a targeted BofA Business MasterCard offer for 0% for 12 months with a capped fee. Think that would have happened if I had trashed my personal score? Prolly not.Not to mention you are doing a bump o rama, so that helps with the inquiries for the new application. Make sure most the inquiries are gone so you don't risk a chance of being turned down for excessive inquiries (I'm sure you are aware of this, but just in case, couldn't hurt to mention it). Damn this AoR game is addictive. I'm going start going through withdrawal soon here.

MikeR397 said:I've also had a Citi reallocation problem. Tried moving 6.8k from an old Citi AT&T to new Citi Upromise (both MC). Monday they said no problem, and put the request in. Last night, I called and they said they can't do it b/c they cannot move CL to a card with a 0% BT promo. Jerks. Ok, so I got the new Citi AT&T universal "REWARDS", and called to get the old Citi AT&T "Platinum" consolidated to the new card (this new card also has the 0% promotion). This time the rep said sure we can do it, gave me the approval over the phone and I saw the credit line increase from 7.5 to 14.3k within 24 hours online. Called in, had them mail me a BT check today. So moral of the story, apparantly Citi is super flaky with CL consolidation, so just keep trying different reps for awhile.