jleung...

First off, GOOD LUCK!

2nd; you did a lot of homework (funding links and reading terms), and studying (reading previous AOR threads)... and it looks like most of it has really sunk in! I agree with the others that the R in AOR means rama (a lot!), but you "probably" have a few too many. That being said, with a GREAT HHI, and GOOD CL (most of it unused), you might get some really good results!

Read this thread again for opinions, and some of the others for refresher.... limit apps where others have said to limit apps.

The only other thing I want ot add are:
1. What are you going to do with the money? Do you have accounts setup in High Yield Savings (HYS)? are you going to ladder some CD's? are you going to buy a kiddie pool for your living room and fill it with 10 bills and swim in it?
2. What is your escape plan? If you BT a lot, and for some reason you need to pay it off quickly, can you get to the money?
3. How are you going to manage payments? Some people auto-pay, I use a spreadsheet and have set all my due dates for the same week... I sit down and pay EVERYTHING on one day!
4. IF you do BTs, have you decided HOW much of each new line you are going to use? To keep score from further plummeting, best is <35%... accepted is <49%.... dangerous players go for higher (and business lines can SOMETIMES be maxed without affecting your score).
5. Decided on strategy when applying (ask for BT or NOT)? Some say asking for BT creates higher lines (true with some issuers).

Lastly, be ready to cancel the WHOLE AOR if:
you need a car loan, home loan, or other possible emergency pops up... your score will probably drop 100 to 150 points IF you apply for 30 new account and have 40 inquiries; getting a measly 5,000 loan will be tough!

oops, the real LASTLY: what is your get well plan? Have you planeed how to "get rid of" all thos inquiries (inqs) on your report?

One more LASTLY... search for the thread on opening a citi account with credit card.... you can probably BT money to a citi card with little or no balance, create a huge credit, then fund a NEW citi Savings account from that, earning TYP (Thank you points) as well as new account opening bonuses... then you can move the money to HYS elsewhere (like wamu (currently at 5%)).

Dammit, one more lastly.... if you DON'T already use yodlee (or versions of it like BoA's Portfolio)... research that.... it makes it much easier to keep track of EVERYTHING!

Again, Good LUCK!!!

*Added to favorites*

PS, can you help me find links for MY upcoming AOR (version 3.0)??? HHI is lower, existing CL is lower, utilization is higher.... and scores are about the same. I will be using your links and reading YOUR RESULTS to determine how my AOR is structured!

Technologist, first of all, thanks for the comments.
1. What are you going to do with the money? Do you have accounts setup in High Yield Savings (HYS)? are you going to ladder some CD's? are you going to buy a kiddie pool for your living room and fill it with 10 bills and swim in it?
2. What is your escape plan? If you BT a lot, and for some reason you need to pay it off quickly, can you get to the money?I am going to deposit the BT money into HYS. I have FNBO Direct and BoA NEA. Those are liquid accounts that I can withdraw money easily if I need to pay off the BT quickly for whatever reason.
3. How are you going to manage payments? Some people auto-pay, I use a spreadsheet and have set all my due dates for the same week... I sit down and pay EVERYTHING on one day!Yes, I will also use spreadsheet. In addition, I plan to use Yodlee and set up outlook calendar as reminder. Can bank online bill pay (e.g. BoA) be used to set up auto-payment to pay the credit cards every month? Any other good suggestions?
4. IF you do BTs, have you decided HOW much of each new line you are going to use? To keep score from further plummeting, best is <35%... accepted is <49%.... dangerous players go for higher (and business lines can SOMETIMES be maxed without affecting your score).I will use the general rule of thumb here, i.e. 49% overall for personal credit, 89% for business credit. An individual personal credit card may go over 49%, but the overall personal credit will be <=49%.
5. Decided on strategy when applying (ask for BT or NOT)? Some say asking for BT creates higher lines (true with some issuers).I believe the general consensus is to apply for BT after the CC is approved. I will request CLI first. Do you have the list of issuers where requesting for BT during application will give higher CL?
oops, the real LASTLY: what is your get well plan? Have you planeed how to "get rid of" all thos inquiries (inqs) on your report?People suggests TrueCredit and CreditSecure. I am using PrivacyGuard right now. Will it have the bumppage effect too? Is it as easy as just requesting the CR online which will automatically cause the bumppage to happen?
One more LASTLY... search for the thread on opening a citi account with credit card.... you can probably BT money to a citi card with little or no balance, create a huge credit, then fund a NEW citi Savings account from that, earning TYP (Thank you points) as well as new account opening bonuses... then you can move the money to HYS elsewhere (like wamu (currently at 5%)).I looked at Citibank Ultimate Savings, but $100 Offer is only available for first-time Citibank deposit account customers. I already have savings account with Citibank. Which other Citibank accounts can I open to earn TYP and bonus?
PS, can you help me find links for MY upcoming AOR (version 3.0)???Good luck with your AOR 3.0. You are a guru already! You can always use the list in the OP as a reference. These are good links, I think.

r0man, in my notes, BoA Financial Rewards offers:
"Cardholders receive five bonus points after their first purchase. Receive another five points for every $2,500 in BT per billing cycle (up to 25 points per billing cycle). One point is equal to $1 in rebates. 0% BT for 6 statement closing dates. No BT fee."
That potentially could be up to $150 in rebates. That's why I apply it.

I will re-shuffle Citi PremierPass, Business AA, and Bank Atlantic as directed.

For Advanta, people said that I probably can only have 1 CC. Since I have an Advanta already, it is just a try and I am not going to put it higher in the list.

I plan to use Citi Professional and/or Citi® Business Card with TYN as the Citi BT card. So I may not use Citi AT&T. I am not planning to use AMEX SimplyCash at all.

I haven't done the homework on which cards will pull which CRA yet.

jleung said:cyberkost,

Keep in mind that BOA NEA has pretty low daily and monthly transaction limitsYou are right. When I try to do a transfer on the web page, the daily transfer limit of BoA is only $10,000. When I look at the HELP page, it is $3,000 per day and $6,000 per 30 days.

I'd recommend getting an E*TRADE or GMAC for this purpose.I have E*Trade account too. Maybe I should use that. But the interest rate is not as good as NEA or FNBO.

Well, yeah, E*TRADE's interest is only 5.05% ... I'm not suggesting dumping all of the money into E*TRADE, but if you want to hedge against the possibility of needing quite a bit of your AOR money "now", E*TRADE is a good place ... it's the risk vs. reward kind of thing ...

I tried to increase the CL of my AMEX cards online today as per suggested here.

1. AMEX Business Blue $15,000 -> $34,900 (We received your request. A paper confirmation will be sent in 7-10 days.)
I thought maybe I am asking too much. So I went back to try to increase from $15,000 -> $25,000 instead. Got the same result (We received your request. A paper confirmation will be sent in 7-10 days.)
2. AMEX Hilton HHonors Platinum $15,000 -> $24,900 (Instantly approved)

For the AMEX Business Blue, I called 1-800-255-5575 three times. I got different answers in each call.
1st: The CSR transferred me to the LOC department. The new CSR said that she saw my Business Blue application was after the HHonors. It will be denied because only 1 CLI is allowed per 60 (or 30?) days. It was weird because I am sure that I applied Business Blue CLI first.

2nd: The CSR said that my Business Blue is approved for 34k, but he couldn't tell when the new CL will be in effect. He told me I can call 1-800-576-8942 and also transferred me to the LOC Business Card department. The new CSR said that all the online CLIs will only work with personal cards. If someone tries to increase the CL of a business card online, it will be forwarded to the wrong department. Those CLI requests will be dropped. She suggested that I can apply on the phone now. It will incur a pull on the personal and business CR. I declined the offer. She gave me a different phone number in case I want to call them back: 1-888-439-3788.

3rd: The CSR said that my Business Blue CL is approved for $25,000. In order to increase the CL to $34,900, I would need to fax the first 2 pages of the last 2 years tax form 1040 to AMEX Media at 1-801-945-7977. She gave me the Ref # as well. I haven't faxed them anything yet.

It seems that when I called different 1-800 numbers to different departments in AMEX (Customer Service, LOC personal, LOC business), I got very different answers.

Any comments and suggestions here?

Tuesday is the AOR day. I finally lost my AOR virginity today!

Pre-AOR Applications

RBS Platinum™ MasterCard®
- applied on 8/16 (Thursday) with BT request = $24,000
- got instant approval
- called on 8/20 (Monday) to confirm that CL = $16,000.

Citi AT&T Universal Rewards Card
- applied on 8/20 (Monday), as this card is the target Citi BT card.

Discover 0% For Life
- applied on 8/20 (Monday) over the phone
- got instant approval with pending CL = $10,000
- need to fax 1040 and W2 to finalize CL

AMEX Hilton HHonors Platinum (existing card)
- increase CL online on 8/20 (Monday)
- CL: $15,000 -> $24,900

AMEX Business Blue (existing card)
- increase CL online on 8/20 (Monday)
- CL: $15,000 -> $34,000 (one CSR said) -> now $500
- AMEX is very messy, bloody, not sure what happened, still investigating

AOR day: 8/21 (Tuesday)

Chase United Mileage Plus® Platinum Business Card
Chase United Mileage Plus Signature Visa® Card
Chase Business Cash Rewards
- all 3 applied

Citi® Business Card with ThankYou Network (Visa or Master Card)
Citi ProfessionalSM MasterCard
- both applied

AMEX IN: NYC
- instant approval, CL = $10,000

AMEX BUSINESS GOLD REWARDS CARD
- instant approval, not sure what CL is.

Bank of America® Platinum Plus® MasterCard®
- instant approval, CL = $17,200

BoA Financial Rewards® Visa® Platinum Plus®
BoA Platinum Plus® Business Rewards MasterCard®
- applied

Discover Miles Business
- applied

Bank Atlantic Rewards Business Master Card
- applied

Capital One® Visa® Business Platinum Credit Card
- instant decline.
- CSR said the application is expired. I think because I applied through the saved link, which isn't the latest link.
- Per Capital One policy, cannot apply for the next 45 days

Fifth Third Bank Business MasterCard
- applied

AOR day: 8/21 (Tuesday) (cont'd)
Washington Mutual Business Platinum MasterCard®
- instant decline.
Washington Mutual Platinum MasterCard®
- Can't apply through the link in OP. It seems that there is a mix up. It is a personal card application, but the form asked for business information. When I clicked the "Confirm" button, it displayed a warning that it is missing some fields which I believe belongs to the personal form.
- Called Wamu and CSR said that I had submitted a personal card application. (I suspect the business link in the OP is a personal application instead of business card application. I think both links are messed up.)
- It was declined because the system thought that I don't have a checking account. I told them I do have a checking account and finally got approved with CL $3000.
- For business application, she told me that I need to have the invitation letter, or go to the financial center to apply. I guess she doesn't know what she is talking because I can definitely apply a Wamu business card online from the Wamu website.
- Anyone has a better link to the Wamu business card application?

National City Visa® Business
National City Elite Visa
- applied.
- 8/22: Got a call. They need to fax me some paperwork to obtain signature.

Juniper National Park Foundation Platinum Visa Card
- instant decline. It stated that I need to provide additional information.
- 8/22: Called and CSR told me that I need to mail them a copy of green card, birth cert, or passport.

M&T Bank Business Platinum Rewards Card
- applied.

Advanta Business card with Rewards
- instant decline. It stated that I already have an Advanta.
- 8/22: Called and CSR told me the only way is to cancel the old card and re-apply for the new card after 48 hours.

Kroger 1-2-3 Reward Mastercard
- applied

Wachovia Visa Card
- applied over the phone.

Citi PremierPass® Card
Citi Business AA
- applied

Chase Sony
- applied

American Express SimplyCashSM Business Card
- instant approval. Don't know CL yet.

BoA Rewards American Express Card
- applied

Citi® Platinum American Express® Card
- applied

Post-AOR applications

Patelco Gold Visa (existing card)
- request CLI. They will call me back with result in 24 hours.

Great thread. Couple of questions:

1. Are you sure that you can BT the money directly to a Savings/checking a/c? Chase declined to do so, they would only do this as cash advance not BT. So what are your plans on moving the BT money?

2. Does one need to own a business to ligitimately apply for Business/Profesional card? The CSRs have given me both answers - yes and no. Could the gurus on this thread comment? I don't have any business right now.

GL with the rest of the AOR

DreamR2I said:Great thread. Couple of questions:

1. Are you sure that you can BT the money directly to a Savings/checking a/c? Chase declined to do so, they would only do this as cash advance not BT. So what are your plans on moving the BT money?Check BT1, BT2, BT3.

DreamR2I said:2. Does one need to own a business to ligitimately apply for Business/Profesional card? The CSRs have given me both answers - yes and no. Could the gurus on this thread comment? I don't have any business right now.

GL with the rest of the AORCheck Business AOR1, Business AOR 2.

Delete

Current pending actions (8/22):

1. Should I call to request CLI on my existing Citi CCs now?
2. Should I call to request CLI on my existing Chase CCs now?
3. Should I call to check the application status of the Chase CCs? I am afraid something similar to Citi will happen, when they check how many cards I have applied in total.
4. I did not succeed in 2 of the business card applications: Advanta and Capital One. Are there any other business cards that I should still apply now?
5. Should I cancel my existing Capital One, wait for 48 hours, and apply for a new one?
6. Anyone has a better link to the Wamu business card application? My link in OP has 0% BT 12 months, max BT fee $75, but it doesn't seem to work. The one on the Wamu web site is 0% BT 6 months, no max BT fee.
7. Still need to deal with the AMEX Business Blue CL fiasco.