I've just discovered this phenomenon of the App-O-Rama. I've always been proud of my credit score, which last check was 928 for Transunion & 909 for Experian. I currently only have three active cards, AMEX Blue Cash ($15K limit), AMEX Blue ($4K limit), and a Target Visa ($10K limit). I usually end up with a $2-3,000 bill each month (total between the 3 cards), which I pay in full (I hate paying interest).

My wife and I are in the market for a new (used) car, for which we plan to spend around $25,000. We've been discussing the financing options, and talked about a HELOC or home equity loan. My wife then thought about a "no interest" card as an option. That's when I stumbled upon the App-O-Rama. I've been a long-time Fatwallet user, but chose to sign up with a new name (AORrookie) to keep myself anonymous (as much as possible).

From what I've researched, am I to assume successful excecution includes signing up and getting approved for as many credit cards @ 0% interest on balance transfers....and use 50-70% of that available credit to turn into cash deposits into secure interest bearing accounts (making hopefully 4-5% interest)?

My short term goal was to borrow $25K at the smallest rate possible, but now I'm trying to get more creative by making a profit rather than pay interest! What does the FW community think is my best strategy if I want to pull off an AOR?

Also, how hard of a hit would my FICO score take if I executed this properly?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Read the threads here. The information is already here. I don't see anything that is going to make a big difference in your experience compared to the others that are posting results. Not intended as a flame but as someone also curious about AOR I've been observing the forum and I suspect this is exactly what you should be doing.

You must be looking at your FAKO score, rather than FICO. If you want your true FICO score, head over to myFICO and get it from the source. FICO scores range from 300-850.

In any case, you want to do an AOR so that you can pay cash for a car, then stuff whatever remaining cash into an interest bearing account? You would need to ensure that you are liquid enough to be able to pay back the card once the 0% periods are over and hope that you never miss or screw up a payment.

The point of the AOR is NOT to spend the money, but rather stuff it away somewhere and earn as much interest as possible before you have to pay it back.

AORrookie said:
If these aren't valid "FICO" scores, let me know.

They're not.

These are Vantage scores. Both TU and EX offer them for a fee when you get your annual freebie.

You have great scores, and it is not clear if you need to get real FICOs. The place to get real FICO scores is www.myFICO.com

Sign up for the ScoreWatch program for the introductory price of FREE for one month to get your EQ based FICO.
Sign up for the Quarterly Monitoring program to get your TU score for $4. Use one-time credit cards, and cancel before the month is up.

You should read the main AOR thread by SIS (stickied at the top), DaveHanson's how to maintain good credit score threads and how to play the balance transfer game thread, and from SIS's thread, read all recent AOR threads.

Then you should come up w/ an AOR plan, and then you will get good feedback by many people here on how to perfect your plan.

Get business cards, at the end of the promo have your car balance on the business cards. Then you'll be able to AOR again to get new 0% offers. Then move car balance to new offers.

It's really pretty simple, read Venturions thread in the link I posted above. He didn't payoff the previous AOR before AORing again. I think he's over 700,000 now and climbing, no reason you can't do the same with those scores after a little time.

I think 25,000 isn't much to carry and hide, but if you or your wife let it go to your heads, then you'll be in deep DO DO. Remember when you have 500,000 in credit it can go to some bigshots head.

win333 said:Get business cards, at the end of the promo have your car balance on the business cards. Then you'll be able to AOR again to get new 0% offers. Then move car balance to new offers.

It's really pretty simple, read Venturions thread in the link I posted above. He didn't payoff the previous AOR before AORing again. I think he's over 700,000 now and climbing, no reason you can't do the same with those scores after a little time.

I think 25,000 isn't much to carry and hide, but if you or your wife let it go to your heads, then you'll be in deep DO DO. Remember when you have 500,000 in credit it can go to some bigshots head.
Win I think that Venturion is far more sophisticated and knowledgeable in the A0R game than the OP. Apparently he thinks he's gonna pay for his car AND make $5,000 per year, even though HYS account rates have dropped. Yes I know it can be done, I would just advise him to proceed with extreme caution.