"Like a Virgin" - my first app-o-rama updated 12/3

10/25 credit score per freecreditreport.com - 742

Credit profile:

3 inquiries in last 2 years - 1 car loan, 1 cell phone, 1 CC
2 car loans open - paid on time
no real esate loan (in spouses name), own house, (housing payment of $0)
200k HHI (120k me, 80k spouse)

Existing credit cards (all with 0 balance shown on report):

Citi Driver's Edge - $8900 limit (daily use)
Citi Cash Dividend - $9600 limit
Chase Cash Plus Rewards - $10000 limit
Everbank Visa (from my young and stupid days ) - $9750 limit
Circuit City (Chase) Visa - $7000 limit
AMEX Biz Cash Rewards Card - $15000 limit
Macy's - $300 limit

Goal - max 0% balance transfer $, a dash of goodies thrown in, use cardselection.com for application bonuses*.

"Laundering" balance transfer money strategies -

1. debit card on GMAC savings account
2. applied for CitiFlex Personal Line of Credit (decline - too many apps)
3. applied for US Bank Personal Line of Credit (decline - too many apps)

Money to be put in Countrywide Savingslink account @ 5.35% - opened and linked to checking 11/7/07.

Launched 10/25/07....total of 27 cards applied for (+2 personal lines of credit).

Cards applied for - in order (copied and pasted from spreadsheet - I'm too lazy to make it nice)

Card Issuer Name Annual Fee BT Fee Signup Bonus Bonus Value 0% period cardselection.com reward
Citi CitiBusiness 0 0 15000 Thank You 125 12 N/A
Citi Professional w/TY 0 0 15000 Thank You 125 12 N/A
Citi Upromise Card 0 0 None 0 12 N/A
Citi Home Rebate 0 0 None 0 12 N/A
B of A Platinum Plus 0 0 None 0 12 N/A
B of A Platinum Biz 0 0 None 0 12 N/A

AMEX In:LA 0 0 None 0 6 $30.00
National City Biz 0 0 5000 points 20 6 N/A
National City Personal 0 0 5000 points 20 6 N/A
Providian/WAMU ESPN 0 0 $25 espnshop card 25 6 N/A

Citi Biz PremierPass 0 1st year, $75 0 15000 Thank You 125 12 N/A

B of A NEA WorldPoints 0 2%, $30 max None 0 12 N/A
Juniper Rewards Biz Card 0 3%, $75 max None 0 15 N/A
Juniper National Park 0 3%, $50 max Backpack 5 12 N/A
Discover Biz 0 3%, $75 max None 0 12 $40.00
Chase Home Improvement 0 3%, $75 max None 0 12 N/A
Chase Business Rebate 0 3%, $75 max None 0 12 $30.00
Principal Low Rate 0 3%, $75 max None 0 12 N/A
Discover Miles 0 3%, $75 max None 0 6 (12?) $40.00

Juniper US Air Dividend Miles 0 3%, $100 max 15000 US Air Miles 150 6 N/A
Citi PremierPass Elite 0 1st year, $75 3%, $250 max 15000 Thank You 125 12 $25.00

RBS Kroger 1-2-3 0 3%, uncapped None 0 12 N/A
B of A Biz Power Rewards 0 3% uncapped 1000 points 10 9 N/A

AMEX Gold Delta SkyMiles 0 1st year, $85 N/A 15000 SkyMiles 100 0 $60.00
Chase Marriott Rewards 0 1st year, $30 N/A Free night + 20000 200 0 N/A
Chase Marriott Rewards Biz 0 1st year, $30 N/A Free night + 20000 200 0 N/A
AMEX Starwood Pref Bus 0 1st year, $45 N/A 15000 SPG points 200 0 $60.00

*One important note - it makes a difference where you click through for the specific credit cards. On some cards, there was a $75 cap if you applied directly through the issuer website - however, if you clicked through cardselection.com, there was no cap. It's very important to read the terms and conditions for each card before you apply.

--- Results below ---

Approvals - 23
Citi Upromise - $4600 (instant)
AMEX In:LA - $10000 (instant)
Providian/ESPN - $1000 (instant)
Chase Home Improvement - $5000 (instant)
AMEX Starwood Preferred Biz - $20339
Juniper US Air Dividend Miles - $5000
Juniper Rewards Biz Card - $5000
CitiBusiness - $25000
Citi Professional w/ThankYou - $12000
Citi Home Rebate - $3600
AMEX Gold Delta SkyMiles - $10000
Discover Miles - $4800
Discover Biz - $13100
B of A Biz Power Rewards - $10000 (decline until I called)
B of A Platinum Biz - $10000 (decline until I called)
Juniper National Parks - $5000 (decline until I called)
Chase Marriott Rewards - $18000
RBS Kroger 1-2-3 - $8000
Chase Marriott Rewards Biz - $15000
National City Biz - $20000 (declined until I called)
B of A Platinum Plus - $12500
B of A NEA WorldPoints - $5000
Chase Biz Rebate - $2000

Declines - 4 + 2 PLOC
National City Personal - too many inquiries on credit report
Citi PremierPass Elite - too many apps (Citi internal)
Citi Biz PremierPass - too many inquiries on credit report
Principal Low Rate - too many inquiries on credit report

Citi PLOC - too many apps (Citi internal)
US Bank PLOC - they botched my application, then declined after the 2nd credit pull with too many inquiries

More stats:

Total new credit lines - $207600

Total signup bonuses - ~ $1420

Cardselection.com bonuses - $260
confirmed signup bonuses - approximate value - $1160
$25 ESPN card
15000 US Air Miles
15000 Delta Sky Miles
Backpack
1000 BofA points
30000 Citi TY points
15000 Starwood Preferred Guest points
40000 Marriott Rewards points + 2 free Marriott Night

Total of all credit lines: $268150
Total personal credit: $150050
Total business credit: $118100

Total personal 0% BT money available @ 89% util: $91225
Total business 0% BT money available @ 95% util: $94145
Total 0% money available: $185370 - post-reallocations

Acid test: total personal lines * 49% util: $73524.50

good luck! I gearing up to do my first one soon.

Reasons for the instant declines?

What HH Income are you putting on your apps? housing payment of zero? Also, with open car loans your disposable income is reduced by those payments.

Small ESPN limit - I wonder why - did you request a BT with the application?

With those stats, this should be a rock-star A-O-R. It will be helpful to us as you share the reasons for the decline. You may also want to follow-up with the lower CL cards and check with their credit departments - mistakes happen - and you should be getting big lines with your stats.

[edit] how many inquiries did you have pre-apps?

thanks for the thread... do keep updating on what BT amount u want to do and how much u succeeded in doing......

as others mentioned, I had no luck with advanta and HSBC for >5k CL

It might simply be a poor time for credit applications with the issuers being stingy???I applied for the bank atlantic card and was declined, also...simply response is that I had sufficient credit with juniper...have 1 personal card with them (at one point had 2)....

Try calling on the deferrals - My Chase (both personal and biz) were hung up in the processing spindle for about a week, then the CSR pulled them out and sent them on their way to approval later that day. Same with BofA Plat card, and my Discover Biz was declined until I inquired and she immediately approved it for $7k.

It may or may not help with approvals, but it will definately speed up the process.

markkundinger said: I wouldn't stress too much. The two declines for the BofA business cards are kind of annoying, but by no means fatal. And comparing results to thisguy's AOR is self-defeating, because his had freakishly awesome results.

Also, the majority of decisions are always deferred, not instant. It will take it at least two weeks for stuff to shake out.

Yeah check out the new one "Part-2 Here" so far it's a little less encouraging with lots of declines already and some low limits. I will have to make some phone calls as well. I would guess with the subprime shakeup and people chatting about CC debt being next that the banks may be applying a little more scrutiny all of a sudden. I don't think the AOR will die but it's prime may have passed for now and we may have to scale back somewhat and be more selective to continue our success.

Good luck Seth!! I hope the approvals and high limits keep coming in.

By the way you can look at the list but I was deferred for nearly every app.

Thisguy

Well done on your persistence and follow-up.

another request for updates. also, are you sure that your BOA Biz card has no BT fee? I've been looking for one of those... thought they were all 3% uncapped now.

sethdallob said: I don't know about the BOA cards, as I haven't physically received them yet.

thisguy - I've kept the top post updated literally day by day though the process.

One nice surprise is that one of the AMEX biz cards comes with a 0 fee 2.9% intro BT rate for 6 months, so there is a significant reallocation opportunity there.

do you have a link to what you applied for?

I already tried National and they turned me down, despite the call.

sethdallob said: clyde_frog said: sethdallob said: I don't know about the BOA cards, as I haven't physically received them yet.

thisguy - I've kept the top post updated literally day by day though the process.

One nice surprise is that one of the AMEX biz cards comes with a 0 fee 2.9% intro BT rate for 6 months, so there is a significant reallocation opportunity there.

do you have a link to what you applied for?

I went through the cardselection.com link for the AMEX SPG Biz card. I got the card for the signup bonuses, but that was a nice surprise!

You guys are bothering with 2.9? Doesn't leave much after taxes does it? Or am I missing something. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by reallocation opportunity?

sethdallob said: thisguy said:

You guys are bothering with 2.9? Doesn't leave much after taxes does it? Or am I missing something. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by reallocation opportunity?

2.9 is better than 3% uncapped last time I looked...

I thought I had read a thread that allowed you to deduct the interest on the App-O-Rama as investment expense...in essence my sole proprietorship's business is doing AOR's...my income is interest, my expenses are cc interest...net it out and pay taxes on the difference?

you'd risk an Am.EX FR for a 2.9% BT rate for 6 months? that certainly doesn't pass my personal cost-benefit analysis.

So I finally have my PLOC almost set up, and my Countrywide savings account is good to go. Is it worth it to do the 3% uncapped BT's?

mhesidence said: sethdallob said: So I finally have my PLOC almost set up, and my Countrywide savings account is good to go. Is it worth it to do the 3% uncapped BT's?

back of envelope math

borrow $10,000, fee $300.
profit $10 * 5.35% = $535 (Doesn't take into account min payments)
tax man takes? $535 * .28 = $150ish
state tax?

after tax and fee profit $535 - $300 - $150 = $85

Not really, depends on you.

Doesn't the tax man only take .28 * $165?

And after federal tax man comes state tax man and then municipality tax man ... not really worth it (and that's, perhaps, why we don't read about people doing it on FWF)