Its been about 15 months since my last A0R.. With that one I got about $120K in new credit line, and ended up with 2 0% balance transfers - $79K with Chase, no fee, 12 months that runs until April, and another at $30K with Citi for life. Right now I'm at 42% overall credit utilization. Unless someone thinks otherwise I will be waiting until the 0% Chase offer expires to fire this one off, but I'm getting a bit of a head start, really for my own organization.
Also, as mentioned in my previous thread, I was thinking about buying some real estate, which I did in October 2007, with cash. In December I applied for a HELOC. Any further real estate purchases will be from an outside investor so I don't have to worry about keeping my credit score up for anything in the near future.
A0R #1 Adverse Reactions 1) Chase closed 4 of my accounts at $500 each, including my oldest account. After several calls to Chase got the oldest one reinstated. 2) Chase lowered my A0R card from $79K to $72.5K once I got to that point (same time as #1) 3) BoA lowered limit of one card to $2500 from $5000.
A0R #2 Goals 1) Business credit lines! 2) A0R Money - Hopefully Chase Personal, BoA Personal, Citi Business, Chase Business 3) Cash, hotel and airlines rewards. I won't be trying as hard for hotels as my (new!) fiancée is now working at a major upscale hotel chain with locations worldwide, which gives us great discounts and any hotel rewards almost useless.
Chase.......SonyCard...................VISA.....P.......$72,500*
AM-EX.......Starwood Preferred Guest...AM-EX....P.......$48,000
BoA.........Iowa Rewards...............MC.......P.......$39,000
CitiBank....Diamond Preferred..........MC.......P.......$30,500**
CitiBank....Premier Pass...............MC.......B.......$16,200
CitiBank....SearsCard..................MC.......P.......$14,050
Chase.......United Mileage Plus Bus....VISA.....B.......$10,000
Discover....Miles Card.................DISC.....P.......$8,000
CitiBank....CitiBusiness Plat. Select..MC.......B.......$5,000 <-Closing for new A0R to leave 1 P and 1 B Citi Card
AM-EX.......Freedom Pass Plat. Bus.....AM-EX....B.......$1,000
Discover....Cash-Back Bonus............DISC.....P.......$2,750
BoA.........WorldPoints Platinum Plus..MC.......P.......$2,500
De11........Preferred Account..........n/a......P.......$1,500
MBNA........Charles Schwab.............VISA.....P.......$1,000
BoA.........Gold Points Platinum Plus..VISA.....P.......$800
BoA.........WorldPoints Platinum Plus..VISA.....P.......$800
CitiBank....Diamond AM-EX..............AM-EX....P.......$500 <-Closing for new A0R
CitiBank....Platinum Select............MC.......P.......$500 <-Closing for new A0R
CitiBank....AT&T Universal Rewards.....MC.......P.......$500
Express.....Charge Card................n/a......P.......$500
Chase.......PerfectCard................MC.......P.......$500
AM-EX.......Gold Business..............AM-EX....B.......(no limit)
*Have 0%BT until April 2008
**Have 0%BT forever
FICO Scores
........TU.....EX....EQ
18-Jan-2008
FICO....??......??...120
FAKO....765....730...756
INQ.....1......18.....4
21-Jan-2008
FAKO....765....730...758
INQ.....1......18.....3
18-Apr-2008
FAKO....765....748....774
INQ....0.....9....1
15-May-2008
FAKO.....795......782.....773
INQ....1.....8.......1
DAY OF APPLICATIONS - BEFORE
FAKO......796.....782.....796
INQ........1.......8......1
DAY OF APPLICATIONS - AFTER
FAKO......791....779.......786
INQ........3.......10......8
A0R #2 Prep. In the next month or two, I plan on doing the following: 1) Credit: My only negative on my CR is a 30 day late from March 2001, so it should go away soon. I'll follow through on that. 2) Keep bumping my score with TrueCredit. 3) After paying off the Chase BT, up my limits with soft inquiries as much as possible.
19-Jan-2008: Edited for table clarity 19-Jan-2008: Began list of planned apps 21-Jan-2008: Removed Chase Bus Cash Rewards, Added Citi Professional Business, reordered as per markkundinger, kittenmittens, added Hilton per lhendricks92 21-Jan-2008: Removed Citi Professional Cash, leaving 3 personal and 3 business Citi cards after the A0R is complete; added BoA PetRewards for a backup to the NEA card, added Advanta and Juniper 01-May-2008: Updated credit scores, re-ordered list (a and b designations are alternatives/backups). 04-May-2008: Negatives on CR are gone, paid off balances and waiting CR update. Reordered list, updated links. 15-May-2008: Updates FAKO scores. Still waiting for new balance to post to Equifax, then I'm pulling the trigger. I'm hoping by Monday the 19th.
The day before the AOR, I received a Chase Business BT Offer at 0% until May 2009, max $50 fee. So I kept #1, but changed #7 in lieu of the Chase Personal Continental Card. I only got 4 instant approvals, but no rejections: similar to what I had last year, so I'm not too worried. AMEX gave me two of them, which was surprising considering my already high limits with them. I'm hoping I don't get an FR, but whatever.
1) Chase GM Business 0% 12 months $75 BT Fee - DEFERRED, WAITING as of 5/30, NO APP 2) BoA NEA 0% 12 months $30 BT Fee - DEFERRED, APPROVED, $5K 2a) BoA PetRewards Platinum 0% 6 months no BT Fee - DEFERRED, APPROVED, 15K (taken from current BoA CL) 3) Citi Professional Business 0% 12 months $50 BT fee - DEFERRED, DECLINED, then APPROVED, $18K (not technically biz) 4) Principal Bank 0% 12 months $75 BT Fee - DID NOT APPLY (WEBSITE DOWN) 5) Juniper Bank Atlantic 0% 15 months $75 BT Fee - DEFERRED, APPROVED, $25K, then lowered to $1K 6) Citi Drivers Edge 0% 12 months no fee - DEFERRED, VERIFYING INFO, APPROVED, $4.8K 7) Chase Platinum 0% 12 months, $75 BT fee - SKIPPED, APPLIED FOR CHASE PERSONAL CONTINENTAL - DEFERRED, DECLINED, BUT NOW APPROVED, $10K (taken from current CL) 8) Chase United Mileage Plus 21,000 miles, $60/yr after 1st yr - APPROVED, LIMIT = $13K 9)Chase Continental Air Business 20,000 points $85 annually - DID NOT APPLY (WEBSITE ERROR) 10) Discover Business 0% 12 months $75 BT fee - DEFERRED, APPROVED, $6500 11) National City Lifespring Visa 0% 12 months no BT fee - DEFERRED, APPROVED BUT VERIFYING INFO, $10K 12) AMEX Platinum Bus. Freedompass $110 cash - APPROVED, LIMIT = $3500 13) Citi Business AAdvantage 20,000 points $75 annually after 1st yr - DEFERRED, VERIFYING INFO, DECLINED 14) Citi Hilton HHonors Visa 15K points - SKIPPED, APPLIED FOR CITIBUSINESS (15K TY POINTS) - DEFERRED, DECLINED 15) Advanta Platinum Business 0% 15 months, $90 BT Fee - APPROVED, LIMIT = $2500 16) Juniper National Park Foundation Visa 0% 12 months $50 BT Fee - DEFERRED, DECLINED, THEN APPROVED, $10K 17) Associated Bank 0% 12 months no BT Fee - Thanks Elleve! - DEFERRED, DECLINED 18) AMEX Gold Business 25,000 points - APPROVED (NO LIMIT) BONUS 19)CITI Professional Card (15K TY POINTS) - DEFERRED, DECLINED
BOTTOM LINE AOR Money: BoA (P): $49,500 [complete] Chase (B):$72,000 [complete] Discover (B): $16,000 [complete] CitiBank (P): $22,500 + $24K lifetime from last year [complete] CitiBank (B): $0 (nooo!) Advanta (B): $0 (CL too low) Nat City (P): $9500K [waiting on online access] Juniper (B): $20K [complete] TOTAL: $213.5K
New Credit Line: $98.3K
Airline tickets: 3
Still waiting for Nat City online access; United miles ($250 purchase); AMEX 25K points ($1000 purchase)
I haven't documented it very well, but there is some info that I think it will show you how to get higher biz credit lines.
I'm about to find out, I'm hoping they won't question weather I have a biz or not. Most of my business cards seem like they start out small and once they trust me they raise them fast. By starting biz credit files I think they will trust me right from the start.
Thanks for the link. That will be helpful when I start compiling my applications list. Keep it updated and I'll keep checking it.
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 19, 2008 @ 5:06p
ShaneM said: Thanks for the link. That will be helpful when I start compiling my applications list. Keep it updated and I'll keep checking it.
There are much better threads, but mine is more about getting bigger biz lines.
That conoco account I just got was for 4,000 it didn't even ask for REV or income. Because they trust me from my biz credit report that I started in NOV. 07....
Chase lets you reallocate from personal to biz cards. I did this recently in my second AOR and took out $48k from my Chase Biz card. This will keep my utilization low on personal accounts and hopefully keep Chase from taking adverse action on my personal cards. I believe Citi also lets you allocate from personal to biz though I haven't tried it myself.
catonis
Happy Member
posted: Jan. 19, 2008 @ 6:32p
Hindustani said: Chase lets you reallocate from personal to biz cards. I did this recently in my second AOR and took out $48k from my Chase Biz card. This will keep my utilization low on personal accounts and hopefully keep Chase from taking adverse action on my personal cards. I believe Citi also lets you allocate from personal to biz though I haven't tried it myself.
Last August I was able to reallocate CITI personal to bus.
Hindustani said: Chase lets you reallocate from personal to biz cards. I did this recently in my second AOR and took out $48k from my Chase Biz card. This will keep my utilization low on personal accounts and hopefully keep Chase from taking adverse action on my personal cards. I believe Citi also lets you allocate from personal to biz though I haven't tried it myself.Yes, thank you for reminding me of that. Depending on the 0% offer I get, I hope to be able to put my Chase CL onto business, and if I am successful with doing that with Citi as well, I may hold off on Personal BT and do another Personal A0R a few months down the line. Time will tell.
I agree with markkundinger, too many Chase cards on your list. Also, unless you plan to apply for Suntrust within the first 5-6 apps, stay away from it.
You should think of applying for Citi AMEX Platinum of you already do not have this card. It has no annual fee for first year, 3% CashBack (ThankYou points) for 2 years and free CitiMonitor subscription. I pay $13 per month for AMEX CreditSecure and will cancel it and move to CitiMonitor service for free. A saving of $156 per year!!
kittenmittens
Frivolous Member
posted: Jan. 20, 2008 @ 6:24a
ShaneM said: 1) Citi Drivers Edge 0% 12 months no fee (Denied last time because of CitiBank 3 card limit - I will close the AT&T Card and Diamond AMEX before A0R. That should do the trick, unless they are both co-branded?AT&T is co-branded at least, you shouldn't need to close it.
if you suspect you're at or near your total exposure limit with citi, get a hilton visa signature. it has an independent (generous) credit bucket, and you can consolidate (possibly reallocate) to another card. i would suggest a biz card with a BT offer.
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 20, 2008 @ 11:43a
Hindustani said: I agree with markkundinger, too many Chase cards on your list. Also, unless you plan to apply for Suntrust within the first 5-6 apps, stay away from it.
You should think of applying for Citi AMEX Platinum of you already do not have this card. It has no annual fee for first year, 3% CashBack (ThankYou points) for 2 years and free CitiMonitor subscription. I pay $13 per month for AMEX CreditSecure and will cancel it and move to CitiMonitor service for free. A saving of $156 per year!!
I thought citi monitor was like Quarterly, is it a daily puller? Did it change?
win333 said: Hindustani said: I agree with markkundinger, too many Chase cards on your list. Also, unless you plan to apply for Suntrust within the first 5-6 apps, stay away from it.
You should think of applying for Citi AMEX Platinum of you already do not have this card. It has no annual fee for first year, 3% CashBack (ThankYou points) for 2 years and free CitiMonitor subscription. I pay $13 per month for AMEX CreditSecure and will cancel it and move to CitiMonitor service for free. A saving of $156 per year!!
I thought citi monitor was like Quarterly, is it a daily puller? Did it change?
ShaneM said: Its been about 15 months since my last A0R.. With that one I got about $120K in new credit line, and ended up with 2 0% balance transfers - $79K with Chase, no fee, 12 months that runs until April, and another at $30K with Citi for life. Right now I'm at 42% overall credit utilization. Unless someone thinks otherwise I will be waiting until the 0% Chase offer expires to fire this one off, but I'm getting a bit of a head start, really for my own organization.
......
A0R #2 Prep. In the next month or two, I plan on doing the following: 1) Credit: My only negative on my CR is a 30 day late from March 2001, so it should go away soon. I'll follow through on that. 2) Keep bumping my score with TrueCredit. 3) After paying off the Chase BT, up my limits with soft inquiries as much as possible.
............
Newbie questions:
1. What does "bumpingmy score with TrueCredit" mean? And how do you do it?
2. What does "up my limits with soft inquiries" mean? And how do you do it?
TIA
mhesidence
Dismembered Member
posted: Jan. 20, 2008 @ 9:58p
confused200 said:
Newbie questions:
1. What does "bumpingmy score with TrueCredit" mean? And how do you do it?
2. What does "up my limits with soft inquiries" mean? And how do you do it?
Could you also update the link to the Principal Bank Card. Thanks.
zoomsoldier
New Member
posted: Jan. 21, 2008 @ 4:22a
From my experience, 5 Chase apps isn't too many. I did an AOR two weeks ago and was approved (not instantly) for the Sony and Platinum Visa (personal) and the GM, Amazon, Biz Cash and Biz Rebate (business).
You seem to be missing a Citibank business card, with which to reallocate credit and then BT the crap out of.
And, if you enjoy financial reviews, I'd recommend an AMX card with a 0% deal. People seem to be agreeing with you here, so I'll consider it; however last year I applied for 2 personal and 1 business, and got $60K between the three of them. I have a very good relationship with Chase, so I might bring it down to 4 but no lower.
I thought the CitiProfessional Card was business, but you're right; its not. I added the business version.
I am staying away from AMX for that very reason. Since last year my HHI has dropped a bit and I already have $50 with AMX. I don't want to even touch AMX this time around.
1) Should I freeze Experian or not? I have 18 inquiries, all from 12-23 months ago. However, when I apply in April only 9 of them will be left.
2) I wanted to confirm the general consensus on CL reallocations.
Chase: P->B P->P B->B OK, B->P no Citi: P->P B->B OK, B->P P->B no BoA: P->P B->B P->B OK, B->P no Discover: P->P B->B P->B usually OK B->P ?? AMX: P->P B->B P->B B->P OK
Assuming these are true, it looks like my game plan for the big three:
Chase: Move everything to Business at 0% Citi: Add my new business CL to the $20K I've got, and maybe a personal 0% if I actually get a reasonable limit. BoA: Move my current $40K+ to the NEA card at 0%
markkundinger
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 21, 2008 @ 6:37p
Citibank is less consistent. While B->P is generally a firm "no", everything else is a "maybe" when reallocating. But it's worth working at it.
MikeR397
Senior Member - 3K
posted: Jan. 21, 2008 @ 7:19p
SleepyNyte said: Could you also update the link to the Principal Bank Card. Thanks.Warning, Principal bank is not good with many credit inquiries, and they delay thier pull for a day or two after you apply usually.
Couple of suggestions 1 - CardBenefit.com (via freefrequentflyermiles.com) may have some cash referral bonuses 2 - AMEX: I suggest a starwood biz card. You get 10K bonus points, a CL that is transferrable to a personal card (apply for the IN:whatever for 0% 6 months no fee) I saw that you don't need hotel points, but starwood points transfer to most airlines at a 25% bonus -- so you can fly free to your cheap hotel. The FR is not as bad as you think it'll be 3 - BankAtlantic Biz (Juniper) 15mo $75 fee Link 4 - Suntrust and Principal are both Infibank, I don't think you can get both, so maybe apply for the 12month BT first.
markkundinger
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 21, 2008 @ 10:31p
Shane, regarding Chase, in my orama I applied for four Chase chards (2 biz, one personal, and one cobrand with Lasalle). However, I only NEEDED one card (business) to do the 0% with, the others were bonus grabs, and in teh case of the Lasalle bank card, just done out of curiosity to see what would happen when the bank was bought out.
So anyway, I did 4 apps, and zoomsoldier says he did 5. So I'm not saying it's impossible. However, the later apps might be better used on another card. After all, what's the point of 4 different cards with identical BT terms and no signup bonuses? You're just going to end up reallocating to one card anyway.
devildoc said: Couple of suggestions 1 - CardBenefit.com (via freefrequentflyermiles.com) may have some cash referral bonuses 2 - AMEX: I suggest a starwood biz card. You get 10K bonus points, a CL that is transferrable to a personal card (apply for the IN:whatever for 0% 6 months no fee) I saw that you don't need hotel points, but starwood points transfer to most airlines at a 25% bonus -- so you can fly free to your cheap hotel. The FR is not as bad as you think it'll be 3 - BankAtlantic Biz (Juniper) 15mo $75 fee Link 4 - Suntrust and Principal are both Infibank, I don't think you can get both, so maybe apply for the 12month BT first.Devildoc, thanks for your helpful comments. I made some changes based on them.
kittenmittens
Frivolous Member
posted: Jan. 23, 2008 @ 11:25a
markkundinger said: After all, what's the point of 4 different cards with identical BT terms and no signup bonuses? You're just going to end up reallocating to one card anyway.This was my thinking as well. You already have $83k available with them so I wonder how much more you'll get out of 5 apps. A year or two ago I'd figure the more the merrier, the worst they can do is say no, but after reading a few stories of folks asking for CLIs and having their lines cut for their trouble it makes me think a lower profile might be in order.
kittenmittens said: markkundinger said: After all, what's the point of 4 different cards with identical BT terms and no signup bonuses? You're just going to end up reallocating to one card anyway.This was my thinking as well. You already have $83k available with them so I wonder how much more you'll get out of 5 apps. A year or two ago I'd figure the more the merrier, the worst they can do is say no, but after reading a few stories of folks asking for CLIs and having their lines cut for their trouble it makes me think a lower profile might be in order.I agree that they are excessive. I've taken out one BT card and replaced it with a card for bonus miles. But the primary reason is that I don't want to risk getting declined for a Chase BT offer and end up having $80-100K with nothing to BT. So by applying for 2 or 3, I was reducing that risk.
EugeneV
Ancient Member
posted: Jan. 27, 2008 @ 1:27a
Citi P->B should be fine. B->B reallocations are ok, but you loose 1K in consolidations (or maybe I was not persistent enough). Now, perhaps there is a trick for B->P: reallocate from Business to Professional and then convert Professional into Diamond Rewards (personal). I have not tried it.
BofA P->B are not easy.
IIRC the 25% Starwood bonus applies only to points earned from hotel stays.
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Feb. 11, 2008 @ 3:56a
OP are you following ( The peoples AOR help trash my score ) Venturion is going to do 15 chase apps and there is another thread with 15 apps. I think it's BRIANs AOR.
Tired now, if you can't find them I'll post a link.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Mar. 16, 2008 @ 2:06p
Did you pull the trigger on these apps? Also how old are your CC's I'm curious to see as you have some really impressive Credit Lines.
Sorry, let this thread almost die. I just moved, started a new job, and I'm traveling a LOT. But its starting to settle down a little bit now.
I haven't pulled the trigger yet. I'm out of town all next week, and then I pay off $60K from last year's AOR. Then as soon as the balances show 0 on my CR, I'm going to pull the trigger.
I paid off my $60K Chase balance. As soon as my CRs are updated I'm pulling the trigger. I've reordered things a bit, added a couple cards. Some of the links are broken now but I checked each card tonight and they all still have the same terms. Except Principal, I can't find at all...
Shorten the list? Group cards from the same issuer? Reduce the number of cards applied (e.g., in view of recent CITI A/A). Verify that promo terms are still available on the cards as there have been a number of changes (for the worse) reported recently.
swishyx
Senior Member
posted: May. 5, 2008 @ 8:12a
ShaneM said: 1) Should I freeze Experian or not? I have 18 inquiries, all from 12-23 months ago. However, when I apply in April only 9 of them will be left. One thing about freezing - it puts you on the opt-out list. I got a letter from Experian telling me they had done this after I froze, and a paper copy of my TU indicated something similar. It's easy enough to get back on, but just bear in mind that if you don't it will make your mailed CC offers disappear.
SecondCor521
Senior Member
posted: May. 5, 2008 @ 10:51a
ShaneM said: I paid off my $60K Chase balance. As soon as my CRs are updated I'm pulling the trigger. I've reordered things a bit, added a couple cards. Some of the links are broken now but I checked each card tonight and they all still have the same terms. Except Principal, I can't find at all...
Any other advice before I fire this off?
Yes. Dispute the Chase balance with the CRA's; they will ask Chase and Chase will update it to the zero balance. If you're anxious to get started, this may speed things up by a week or two.
markkundinger said: Shane, does the timing of the call indiciate that Barclays/Juniper actually waiting until they received the check to decide to deny it?
Can you see any indication that Barclays/Juniper did a soft credit pull lately, especially around the time they would have received the check?
I'm wondering what triggered them to act skittish. If they looked at your credit report, it might be general adverse action. If they didn't, then they just didn't like that you already maxed out the Bankatlantic card.
You did already get the money out of the BankAtlantic card, right?
Mark,
Yes, they waited until the day they received it. They then did a soft pull, saw all my new credit lines and new high balances, and decided to deny the check and lower my CL. I received a call from Credit Portfolio Manager indicating this.
The money is sitting in my bank account, but unfortunately I wrote a check against those funds to pay my HELOC. Said check hasn't cleared yet. So either it will clear before they send notice and they will be going after an empty bank account, or it will clear after they send notice and my HELOC check will bounce. Awesome.
So the future advice is, either don't do a BT or do it FIRST.
Also, this is the National Park card. My BankAtlantic Biz card I successfully did $20K BT on and have had no problems yet.
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