Not true. People will continue to do BTs if they're better off after doing BT. They're looking for ways to make more money, and charging a fee will help reallocate more of the consumer surplus to them. I'd do an uncapped BT if HYS rate was sufficiently high. Of course, I'd prefer a capped BT, but if that's not an option...
ProfessorKev said: ANybody wonder how much longer the banks will continue to try to do UNCAPPED fees? My feeling is they are just testing the waters because soon, nobody will be doing BT's if they have to pay these excessive fees.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Dec. 19, 2007 @ 3:40p
Alright, so I've been updating this almost daily since last week(check the original post and quick summary for the goings ons).
Anyways today I got a rejection letter from Bank Atlantic for Insufficient Credit History. Do you think if I call them up and offer to provide business revenue information that I might receive a card from them? just curious if others have tried it before really.
cardjuggler
Senior Member
posted: Dec. 20, 2007 @ 12:41a
jevon90 said: rejection letter from Bank Atlantic for Insufficient Credit History. Do you think if I call them up and offer to provide business revenue information that I might receive a card from them? The credit analyst might have access to your National Park app; sometimes Barclays/Juniper is touchy about a bunch of inquiries.
So, might be useful but isn't risk free IMHO.
For the future, you might also look into what it takes to get your company listed by D&B if it's not already. They try to charge big bucks for it, but I can't remember whether there's still a free or cheap alternative.
cardjuggler said: For the future, you might also look into what it takes to get your company listed by D&B if it's not already. They try to charge big bucks for it, but I can't remember whether there's still a free or cheap alternative.
It does not take much to get D&B D-U-N-S number. Took me about 5 mins here
mdfan
New Member
posted: Dec. 28, 2007 @ 12:28p
What happened with your 20K BT request from Lifespring?
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Dec. 28, 2007 @ 12:53p
mdfan said: What happened with your 20K BT request from Lifespring?
no mention of it with my card acceptance (which actually got $7,500K), so I assume it was cancelled b/c it was over my actual CL given next step is to request a BT on it for probably around $3,749 or so.
DjPiLL
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Dec. 28, 2007 @ 1:35p
jevon90 said: mdfan said: What happened with your 20K BT request from Lifespring?
no mention of it with my card acceptance (which actually got $7,500K), so I assume it was cancelled b/c it was over my actual CL given next step is to request a BT on it for probably around $3,749 or so.
LOL... try again. They will most likely just do a BT for $7500 and put you at 100% utilization. Better call them to find this out.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Jan. 1, 2008 @ 8:12p
DjPiLL said: jevon90 said: mdfan said: What happened with your 20K BT request from Lifespring?
no mention of it with my card acceptance (which actually got $7,500K), so I assume it was cancelled b/c it was over my actual CL given next step is to request a BT on it for probably around $3,749 or so.
LOL... try again. They will most likely just do a BT for $7500 and put you at 100% utilization. Better call them to find this out.
Right, I was worried about that and don't see anything about that happening yet, but I will call tomorrow(they're closed today it seems) to double check and I'll let you know the results. I will start some BTs on other cards on Thursday and let everyone know the results.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Jan. 3, 2008 @ 5:06p
Regarding the Lifespring Visa BT at the time of application, as of today no BT was processed as I contacted NatCity and everything is good according to my online view of my account.
Either tomorrow or over the weekend I will be starting processing all of my Credit line transfers and BTs as all decisions are in, though I don't know my CLs on 2 cards I was approved for(Gold Delta Biz AMEX and Discover Biz), so I'll update again once those start happening.
cheapstuff888
Member
posted: Jan. 5, 2008 @ 8:43p
Advanta's term and conditions reads
"Balance Transfers: 7.99%; however, for Balance Transfers made with your application, an introductory 0% for the first fifteen billing cycles from the date your account is opened."
The 0% rate is only valid if you do balance transfer when you apply for the card. I was about to do a balance transfer after I received the card.
cheapstuff888
Member
posted: Jan. 5, 2008 @ 9:06p
Read other thread, I guess I was wrong, the 0% is valid if you do BT after you get the card.
Sorry about that.
mdfan
New Member
posted: Jan. 11, 2008 @ 6:21p
I did a mini-AOR two weeks ago. I requested a 10.5K BT to a Citi card with my LifeSpring(National) application. Just got my card today. Credit limit is 10.5K and they processed the 10.5K BT to Citi to put me at 100% utilization. Does anybody have experience requesting CLI with LifeSpring? I'll probably give that a try or pay the balance down to 90%.
BradleyN
New Member
posted: Jan. 11, 2008 @ 6:57p
Hey Guys-
Just getting into all this B* and AOR stuff and was looking for some quick advice.
I want to use 3-4 services to B* and to do that i need an AMEX card. I see that none offer 0% APR on xfers so I was wondering what i should do? Get something like blue with 0% on purchases and just use that as my primary purchase card for 6 months? Thats what seems best, just making sure I'm not missing any good offers. fwiw I plan in doing my first AOR in March.
Just getting into all this B* and AOR stuff and was looking for some quick advice.
I want to use 3-4 services to B* and to do that i need an AMEX card. I see that none offer 0% APR on xfers so I was wondering what i should do? Get something like blue with 0% on purchases and just use that as my primary purchase card for 6 months? Thats what seems best, just making sure I'm not missing any good offers. fwiw I plan in doing my first AOR in March.
SweetCash said: Hindustani said: Citi Drivers Edge now has $75 BT fees. . Not if you use this link
and if you close the window with your pop up blocker off, you'll get a special offer
mdfan
New Member
posted: Jan. 15, 2008 @ 12:56p
mdfan said: I did a mini-AOR two weeks ago. I requested a 10.5K BT to a Citi card with my LifeSpring(National) application. Just got my card today. Credit limit is 10.5K and they processed the 10.5K BT to Citi to put me at 100% utilization. Does anybody have experience requesting CLI with LifeSpring? I'll probably give that a try or pay the balance down to 90%.
I submitted an online request yesterday for a CLI to 13K. I got a message today that it was approved. That puts me at 80% utilization with National City.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Jan. 17, 2008 @ 5:31p
mini UPDATE well i had family come in town after the new years and between that and work I'm just now ironing out my BTs and reallocations, I just reallocated $4,000 from the chase freedom and $6000 from the Chase Platinum Visa Business Card to the Chase Business Rebate, so that has a $18,000 CL now. So as soon as that reallocation happens i plan on BTing 16,020(89%) via the check they provided. I'll be figuring out and updating you on the other cards shortly. Also I'm planning on not going above 49% util on any personal cards and 89% on biz cards since I have a pretty young credit history and don't want to deal with the fallouts of adverse action.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Jan. 18, 2008 @ 2:53p
Reallocated $2,000 from AMEX Blue to AMEX IN:LA to now each have a $1,000 CL and $9,300 CL respectively as soon as it's processed.
Reallocated $5,000 from Citi Professional to Citi Biz so each have $1,000 CL and $13,700 CL respectively as soon as it goes through and then I'll be looking to BT 89% of the Citi Biz card.(last time I called to do this they said it wasn't possible due to the 0% APR offer rule but this time it went right through though they said I couldn't reallocate my Citi AMEX card b/c it was cobranded with AMEX so I'll have to see how to save that CL when I close the card at the end of the year to avoid the annual fee.)
also I requested a CLI for my new BOA card to see if the CLI is still on crack
I expect to start my BTs for Chase, Citi, and maybe AMEX on Monday after the reallocations are processed.
Lastly, I called AMEX b/c i still hadn't received my Gold Delta Biz Skymiles card and they are reshipping my the card/welcome pack as it was apparently lost in the mail. Still no word on how much that CL is, but I'm now considering waiting on the In:LA BT to maybe reallocate most of its CL over to it.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Jan. 21, 2008 @ 2:39p
BTing $16,100(90% util) of my $18,000 Chase Biz card tomorrow via the convenience check. Unfortunately the BT fee max is $99 instead of $75 and i couldn't get the CSR to change that, maybe i'll try again later on that.
also requested a BT on my Citi Biz card for $12,330(90% util) so they're sending a check to my address to arrive in 7-10 days.
hopefully these 2 checks don't take too long to deposit and I'll then be able to do a same day transfer to my Fidelity MyCash account and get some FSLXX.
markkundinger
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 21, 2008 @ 6:33p
Careful, if you deposit the money directly into a regular bank checking account, the funds may be on hold for a week or two. If the account doesn't pay good interest, it's a huge waste. Now, if your bank loves you, and doesn't put holds on the checks, then no problem. But that's more likely the exception than the rule.
Safest bet is to deposit the money directly into the high yielding vehicle. For instance, drive over to your local Fidelity branch and deposit the checks there. Or even mail them.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Jan. 22, 2008 @ 11:09a
markkundinger said: Careful, if you deposit the money directly into a regular bank checking account, the funds may be on hold for a week or two. If the account doesn't pay good interest, it's a huge waste. Now, if your bank loves you, and doesn't put holds on the checks, then no problem. But that's more likely the exception than the rule.
Safest bet is to deposit the money directly into the high yielding vehicle. For instance, drive over to your local Fidelity branch and deposit the checks there. Or even mail them.
Hmmm, just got back from the bank. Yeah, Chase told me that it could take up to 14 days for the check to deposit but I didn't realize I could gain interest while the check was being held, so I just deposited into my checking. Oh well, i'll try depositing the Citi Check directly into Fidelity when it arrives. Thanks for the advice.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Jan. 29, 2008 @ 5:58p
I finally received the AMEX Gold Delta Skymiles Biz card with it's $3,000 CL. I reallocated $2,000 over to my AMEX IN:LA card
Also, my Chase BT of 16,100 finally arrived in my Checking Account so I did a same day ACH over to my Fidelity Account, so that's finally earning interest.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Feb. 4, 2008 @ 5:04p
Weird news: I got a letter today from Citi in what I thought was gonna be my Citi Biz BT check's envelope, and the letter said my BT could not be made, so I called up a CSR and they said it was cancelled and didn't have the reason available to them, so I asked to get the check sent out to me again so that's happening, but they said they couldn't delay the promotional rate deadline date which stays in mid December 2008, so that's pretty lame that I lost out on 2 weeks interest because they mistakenly cancelled this. Oh well, hopefully it finally arrives next week.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Feb. 6, 2008 @ 2:25p
BT'd 4750(of 5000) from Advanta to my Citi Pro and couldn't get the $90 fee waived unfortunately, but oh well.
Edit:Took until 12/12/08 to post to my Citi account and I requested a check for the negative balance so I have another 7-10 days to wait.
jevon90 said: BT'd 4750(of 5000) from Advanta to my Citi Pro and couldn't get the $90 fee waived unfortunately, but oh well.
This wasn't really worth doing. The fee amounts to 1.8% of the amount of amount of money you received. That cuts your interest earned by that amount. If you have the money in HYS at 3.8% APY this year, and your marginal taxes on the interest earned are 25% (that is, one-fourth of your APR), then you will make this after taxes:
Yeah, I wondered about the math on that one. I did a BT with Advanta for 10k, and that was low enough for me.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Feb. 10, 2008 @ 6:14p
Yeah I'm expecting those numbers too but profit's profit so I'll take it, and I figured it was on the Business side so it wouldn't be hurting my Credit rating so I can buy a free video game or 2 essentially after it's all said and done. but yeah I'm hoping by AOR 2 I have higher CLs so I don't have to scrape by and do these lower transfers
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Feb. 12, 2008 @ 3:25p
Deposited my CitiBusiness BT check of 12.3K and my Card Selections Check for $125 into my Fidelity MySmart Cash Account and was able to put it directly into holdings of FSLXX.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Feb. 13, 2008 @ 11:14p
Wow, so I was just on AMEX and for the heck of it I did some CLIs despite the young history of my cards. On my AMEX IN:LA, that had 11.3K, I got 20K and my Gold Delta Biz Skymiles was going to get 19.8K(up from 1K), but then when I hit submit I got an error message on that card and went back to hit the button again and got a message saying I'd receive a letter in 7-10 days with the decision, so that was weird. Also will hear back about the Blue card too. I figure I'll wait until next week to hear on these others and potentially reallocate to IN:LA and do a BT for 49% of whatever my final CL is. I realize it'll only be a 4 month BT, but it's feeless, and alot higher than I was originally expecting(6Kish since it was going to be half of 11.3K)
Question, is there anyway to request CLIs on Chase without getting hard inqs? Talking to a CSR seemed to imply that it wasn't possible without the hard inq.
SweetCash
Senior Member
posted: Feb. 14, 2008 @ 9:17a
Were you able to request a BT check on the Discover business line? It seems that they don't cut BT check on Business lines anymore...
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Feb. 14, 2008 @ 1:10p
SweetCash said: Were you able to request a BT check on the Discover business line? It seems that they don't cut BT check on Business lines anymore... I haven't done this Discover BT yet as I'm still debating whether a BT on my 3K CL would be worth the effort. I asked about a CLI and they said to wait 6 months.
Unrelatedly, I did get that 19.8K CL on my Gold Delta Business Skymiles AMEX from last night, so I reallocated 18.8 over to AMEX IN:LA and pulled the trigger on a 19.2K BT on that card to my Citi Pro card. I realize I could get FR'ed by AMEX but I used accurate numbers for my income from my 2006 Tax Forms, so I can't imagine any terrible problems.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Feb. 26, 2008 @ 1:50p
So I called up to Consolidate 2 cards at Citi and Chase and learned a couple surprising(in a good way) things: Part 1, I called Citi to try and reallocate some of my Citi Platinum AMEX card to my daily spending Citi MTVu card, as previously I was told because it was an AMEX cobranded card the Citi Platinum couldn't be reallocated, but the CSR today told me while it couldn't be reallocated the full Credit Limit could be consolidated into another card as the minimum Credit Limit allowed on the Citi Platinum AMEX card is $8,000, so I moved the full amount to my MTVu card so it now has $10,100(got an extra $40 somehow, woot!) on it. I plan to keep it there until I apply for another Citi Business (probably the Premier Pass card) to do another BT. Anyways I think it's interesting that Citi Platinum AMEX cards can't be issued or exist with less than $8,000 and might be a good card to try for people with young credit histories expecting lower than 8K CLs otherwise. Part 2, I called up Chase to reconsolidate one of my Chase Business cards that I had previously reallocated all but $1,000 of over to another card(initially it was going to be to a personal card but I was told I couldn't do that), so I moved it over to my other Chase Biz card with an 18,000 CL but the CSR told me the Credit Limit was actually 10,000 on the one I was looking to close, despite the auto-reading given to me before I could select to talk to an advisor just 5 minutes before telling me my available balance was $1,000. So I now have 1 Chase Biz card with $28,000 and with a lower util now, which is probably meaningless as it's a Biz card so doesn't go on my personal CR. At that moment when the CSR said he was moving the $10,000 instead of the $1,000 I had expected, I hesitated keeping it open and possibly doing another BT for $8,900 or so with another $99 fee as it would still be a 0% BT thru November but I checked online and it was still saying $1,00 being my CL on that card so I decided I would take the bird in hand and just move the $10,000 over to that other Biz card and just wait to do a Mini Biz AOR to apply for some other Chase cards to hopefully get a better total CL and move the $10,000 again to one of those cards either in a month or so after all inqs are cleared(i'm considering freezing experian too) or maybe in May/June when my new accounts have aged to be 6 months. Edit: Apparently though i had double checked with the CSR that he didn't misread the 10,000 as I thought it was only $1,000, it was only $1,000 so my biz account has a 19,000 CL.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Mar. 3, 2008 @ 4:43p
Alright, so things are going well on my AOR 1.0 and I'm now considering applying for a fair amount more business cards for further BT possibilities and too expand my relationship with other bank CC issuers and a few personal cards with good bonus offers. I just sent my letter for Experian to be frozen and after that goes into effect I figure it will have been 90 days since my last AOR and my current Inq count is 2/6/0 and my Fakos are 698/757/727 according to PM123. Anybody think this would be a terrible idea? I didn't think this would be too excessive that I would receive A/A but I could also scale back if folks think it might. I also figure I won't be adding many new accounts that'll report(since it's a largely Biz O Rama and the inqs will all be TU and EQ so they can be b*. My plan as is, is to do the first 20 on the list and then may look to do the other 7 apps sometime after the inqs from this O-rama are b* as the offerings of them aren't too appealing or are redundant with other cards i'm applying for. Cards I'm considering: Business Cards CITI 1. CitiBusiness PremierPass, 0% for 12 month BT and 0 fees if done with app, 15,000 pts, $75 annual fee waived 1st year 2. CitiBusiness AAdvantage Mastercard, 25,000 bonus AAdvantage Miles after spending $750 in the 1st 4 months CHASE 3.Chase Business Cash Rewards, 0% for 12 months, $99 fee, $35 CS Bonus 4.Amazon Business Visa (Chase), 0% for 6 months BT, $75 fees 5. Chevy Chase Bank Platinum Business Card, 0% for 12 months, $99 fees AMEX 6. Starwood Preferred Guest Business AMEX, 10,000 bonus points, $45 annual fee waived 1st year 7. AMEX Platinum Business FreedomPass, 5,000 bonus points after 1st purchase, 0% on purchases 8. AMEX Platinum Business,0% Intro APR on purchases for 12 months, for Utilization ELAN 9.M&T Business (Elan), 0% for 6 months BT, $0 fees 10.Cambridge Trust (Elan), 0% for 6 months BT, $0 fees BOA 11.BoA Platinum Business, 0% for 9 months, $99 fee 12.BoA Alaska Airlines Business, 10,000 Bonus Miles with First Purchase 13.Discover Business Miles, 0% for 12 months, $75 fee, $40 CS Bonus, 12,000 Bonus Points possible with purchase each month 14.Fifth Third MasterCard BusinessCard, 0% for 12 months on BTs, $0 fees 15.Bank Atlantic Rewards Business(Juniper), 0% for 15 months, $75 fees 16.Capital One® Visa® Business Platinum with Preferred No Hassle Miles, 0% on Purchases, $60 CS Bonus
jevon90 said: 17. Citi PremeierPass Elite, 25,000 TYPs, 0% for 15 month BT and 3% uncapped fees, $75 annual fee waived 1st year
Personal CITI PPE does not seem to have the $75 fee waived for the 1st year any longer ... As far as how I'd feel taking another dive with the scores you have at the moment -- I would not unless you think your TU and EQ scores (I assume the breakdown you provided follows the TU/EX/EQ convention) are going to recover to the current level of your EX score by the time you start (and/or your business revenue is large enough to attract some meaningful CLs). I'd probably apply for a couple of reward cards to cope with mid-AOR crisis/boredom and decrease overall utilization. AMEX SPG (good bonus, good CLI potential) would be one of them and I'm 50/50 between the BOA (easy CLI, but lousy bonus) and CITI PPE (great bonus, but it's a NPSL card)
ge money business is no longer accepting applications
markkundinger
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Mar. 3, 2008 @ 9:27p
It's only been 90 days, your credit report is probably showing a dozen or so new accounts, and a decent slug of new debt.
I'd recommend giving it a rest.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Mar. 4, 2008 @ 2:08a
Points well taken and thanks for the advice cyberkost,althes, and markkundinger. I agree I'm a little bored and ancy to see how an AOR with EXP frozen goes as well as hopeful to get fruitful new lines. There are a fair amount of new accounts, 9 by my count, but the debt is still pretty low as most is on the Biz side. I've removed The Citi PP Elite card and GE Money completely for now due to the issues mentioned above and scaled back to 10 apps, which I'm still looking to try as I can't imagine anything worse than 10 new inqs going on my report until they are b* happening even if I get alot of rejections and my business revenue was slightly under $400,000 so I'm hoping that'll impress these other issuers if my low to mid 700 Fakos don't. These are the apps I'm looking to fire off once I get word my Experian is frozen(probably early next week): EDIT: i removed 5th/3rd as I'm not in their region of service
1P = First purchase TYP = Thank You Points CB = http://www.cardbenefit.com (I used the referral mentioned here, which is supposed to yield higher bonuses than normal.)
Other Bank and Investment Accounts to open: Bonuses: B1. $100 BOA Business Checking Account applied 3/15/08 approved 3/17/08 B2. TD Ameritrade account to get $100 bonus after 12 months of $50 transfers to account per month B3.$125 + $25 Chase Personal Checking link ..... Call in same day 800.935.9935 to cancel check order B4. Citi Checking account to get the 20K(or 40K?) TYP bonus, still debating depending on how long I need to keep the $25K in the account[/L]
Banks to potentially use: B5. Wells Fargo Checking account(needed to open a CC with them)-> applied and approved 3/20/08 Then Declined 2 days later( i think due to too many Equifax Inqs) I will reapply after the EQ Inqs thin out B6. Schwab Checking Account-> applied and approved 3/20/08
Other B7. Citi Credit Protector Digital Picture Frame bonus for Citi Pro card(s) -3/10/08 applied to new Citi Pro card on . - 2 weeks later: got letter telling me the Citi Professional Card wasn't eligible for the Citi Credit Protector program so looks I'll be waiting to try and get this frame B8. FNBO Billpay $25 bonus 3/26/08 -opened account online and instantly approved 3/31/08 -Received email confirming account linked to my current FNBO username -$25 bonus Received -Required Billpay made -need activity within 90 days(before the end of June) to avoid Dormancy fee B9. $25 for Spending $100 with Chase Biz card in April (targeted letter)
markkundinger
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Mar. 4, 2008 @ 5:39a
I had "mission creep" after my first AOR. Results were very, very modest. More denials, some tiny credit lines. It wsn't really worth the effort.
Admittedly, the odds of anything BAD happening aren't too big, but the odds of anything GOOD happening are very modest as well.
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