xjagox's First AOR

-----BACKGROUND
Age= 26
Married
HHI= $180K
Credit scores unknown, but should be high
Big 30yr fixed 6.5% mortgage with an IO option
$0 Balance HELOC (up to $68K)
~$13K left on a car loan (joint with wife)

-----CURRENT CARDS 		 Credit Limit | Balance | Age
BOA Penn State Alumni Card    	      $22,700 |   $0    | 08/2001
Citi Dividend Mastercard 	      $16,300 | ~$2,000 | 04/2005
Chase Amazon Visa 		       $7,000 |   $0    | 08/2006
JC Penney Card			       $1,000 |   $0    | 05/2003

TOTAL				      $47,000 | ~$2,000

Personal:
Card                                   Limit  | Balance | Utilization
BOA Penn State Alumni Card    	       $2,300 |      $0 | 0%
Citi Dividend Mastercard 	      $16,300 |  $1,200 | 7% (normal usage)
Chase Amazon Visa 		       $7,000 |     $25 | <1% (normal usage)
JC Penney Card			       $1,000 |      $0 | 0%
BOA NEA Wolrdpoints Visa	      $37,000 | $31,000 | 84%  BT via phone to checking acct
Citi Driver's Edge 	               $3,200 |      $0 | 0%
Citi Home Rebate Platinum Select       ????   | ????    | ????
Chase Platinum Mastercard	      $17,000 | $15,000 | 88%  BT check to checking acct
AMEX Clear			      $16,300 |      $0 | 0%
Discover More			      $15,000 | $13,000 | 87%  BT via phone to HELOC
Capital One No Hassle Miles Ultra     $30,000 |      $0 | 0%
PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards	      $20,000 |     $30 | <1% (normal usage)
TOTAL                                $165,100 | $60,255 | 36%

Biz:
Advanta Platinum Business Card	      $10,000 | $8,000  | 80%  BT via phone to checking acct
TOTAL                                 $10,000 | $8,000  | 80%

That's a very attractive CapOne card. Rare 30k limit, not to mention a BT deal to boot. Was there an annual fee? Was it through a pre-approved offer?

You can apply for it (No Hassle Miles Ultra, "with limits up to $30k") on their web site (looks like even with the 0% deal...) or through the CapOne Cardlab; it is the only CapOne card advertised with a $30k limit cap. (Most others disclose limit cap of $20k or less) The stinker is that it's got a $39 annual fee.

And... it's not exactly like you can expect to just call CapOne and expect them to convert the card to a no annual fee version later. (Thank you, notoriously awesome CapOne customer service.)

CRAP1 with refund the AF if you ask, 30,000 is amazing.

Why do you think you got an instant approval for Penfed? Do you have an account with them? I thought penfed always wanted to see documented income?

I would move the 3,200 to another city and close it. It's not worth dragging down your average age. Hell juny gave me a 2,000 limit, I told them to cancel it.

xjagox said: I should be able to move some of my $16.3K line from my Citi Dividend to the Citi Driver's Edge, correct?

According to this thread Citi is no longer reallocating/consolidating CLs to cards that currently have a 0% no/low fee offer on them. This certainly did not stop me from trying, but I still had no luck in trying to reallocate from my Citi Aadvantage card to my Citi Driver's Edge or Citi Professional. I didn't push any further than the generic CSR I reached though...

Capone might be really convenient and give you a "purchase" check that would apply to those terms. That would be cool.

No business cards?

Paying down the mortgage would be like investing in a taxable 6.5% money market... not bad. However, bear in mind that if you pay a lot on the mortgage you may very well need to come up with funds at the end of the term, so don't overdo it. Also, what's the APR on the HELOC?

Love said: Is there anything one needs to do to get approval on deferred card? Thanks !!
Love, I found you here too ! No, typically one just has to wait for the decision to be made. Rarely, if you feel that a particular thing (like a missed/wrong number on the application) has played into the deferral it may make sense to give the issuer a call ...

I called M&T bank after my decline and asked if they could reconsider, thats it she didn't ask anything else. A few weeks later a got a card for 5,000.

xjagox said:
$10,680 from BOA
$15,130 from Chase
$13,350 from Discover

$39,160 total

That should put me at 89% utilization on those cards and about 25% overall. Any issues with that plan?

Hopefully I'll get some extra BT ability from the Advanta card to add to that.

I would be nervous about being at 89% on three different lines right now. If I were you, I would pay the BOA down to <70% after the first month and maybe the Discover, too. I have had good success (no AA, mid-700 credit scores) keeping one line at +/- 89% and having two or three others below 70 percent (and then my montly spenders at 3-5% on average) with overall utilization below 30 %.

-Vance

Don't you want to reallocate much of your BOA Penn State Alumni Card CL to your BOA NEA VISA and then ask the CSR to BT to checking account (even in some other bank)? I mean, perhaps times have changed, but in the not so distant past reallocation (by calling CSR) was a breeze.

Yeah, win333 is right -- BOA directly deposits to checking accounts at other banks, at least did so in the past. I must have not been fully awake when I typed the earlier post (have corrected it since).

I feel that you're going to be fine with Discover and BOA, just make timely payments, preferably above minimum. Chase (as it is now) can (and is likely to sooner or later) give you all sorts of grief ... so just make sure that you get more in after tax interest from their BT money than you pay in fees.

xjagox said: Wow!

I just called BoA to reallocate. Appearantly my existing PSU card limit has been increased to $27,300. She let me reallocate $25K of CL to the NEA card:
PSU CL: $2,300
NEA CL: $37,000

I did a $31,000 BT from the NEA to my checking account, $30 fee.

Also got my Advanta business card in the mail, $10,000 CL. I called up to do a $8,000 BT to checking, $90 fee.

$39,000 free money for $120. Not too bad.

I left 3,000 on my BofA personal, then I saw the BofA on crack thread and CLIed it to 10,000 the next month. woohoo! If you drop the credit line too low then I don't think they'll bite. I just CLIed a suntrust FIA card that I left 600 on and they increased it to 900

BTs are complete.

Advanta - called CSR, BT directly to checking account, $8,000
BoA - called CSR, BT directly to checking account, $31,000
Chase - deposited BT check to checking account, $15,000
Discover - called CSR, wouldn't deposit to checking, transferred to HELOC instead, $13,000

Total= $68,000 of 0% money

Now I just need to wait until all transactions clear.

What's your HELOC rate; prime?

IMO - you've got to be careful using AOR temporary funds (IE: 6- 12- 15-month) to pay down fixed debt. It's risky if you are jeoparding being liquid and possibly in the future being slave to credit cards instead of more "fixed" type of debt.

Scenarios you should consider:
* you lose income source(s) at some point before the temporarily borrowed AOR funds become due.
* you make one or more mistakes on your credit accounts and the borrowed funds become due immediately.
* or both of the above occur!

You should take into effect how costly a liquidity crisis would be to you (IE: bankruptcy, foreclosure, etc.) And make plans with suitable risks. Personally I am quite risk-averse.

For me, an AOR with a 12-month time horizon didn't help much with my confidence for paying down longer term debt, in the way that an alternate vehicle (IE > 3 years) could. Pre-paying 6 or 12 months doesn't provide a whole lot of additional profit, IME.

Dipping into your HELOC for some liquidity is IMO a real option, provided it's in the draw period for a suitable time horizon, and the rate is acceptable (Short terms rates, including Prime are forecasted by the market to drop to 5.5% in less than 1 month, but rise in about a 2 year time horizon.)

You might want to take notice that part of the recent federal "economic stimulus package" included the conforming limit being raised significantly above $417k. I don't know how certain it is to go into effect or when it will happen, but that should make a future re-fi for you much more profitable. More incentive to pay down your debt, keep a clean credit report and perfect payment history!

PS - am I reading you right, that you are "upside down", even with an untapped HELOC of $60k, or is your primary mortgage just below 80% LTV and you're trying to get it back to that level?

edit - nevermind, I see you are shooting to attain 80% LTV primary. I wouldn't worry too much about that, because you could always refinance along with a 90%CLTV HELOC (and then consider using the credit card 0% BT after refinance to pay that immediately off if required.)

How high is your car loan? Considered selling and downgrading to a cheaper, and "wholly owned" used car? IE: Make it a project to sell it on the private market for full market value. Assuming you aren't upside down on your car as well, you'll have some funds available to pay your primary mortgage closer to 80% LTV.

cyberkost said: I feel that you're going to be fine with Discover and BOA, just make timely payments, preferably above minimum. Chase (as it is now) can (and is likely to sooner or later) give you all sorts of grief ... so just make sure that you get more in after tax interest from their BT money than you pay in fees.

What do you mean cyberkost? How can Chase charge fees if you pay the minimum due per month on the 0% BT balance? I thought that all they could do is cancel the card, but there is no risk of any fees (besides the initial $75 max BT fee).