ahself's A0R 1.1 - Wife-O-Rama - 3/5/08

I did my first A0R last March and was pretty successful in terms of approvals, bonuses and BT money gained. At the time I had 4 cards in my name.

For whatever reason, I didn't follow up with a WOR. Not until a couple months before most of my A0R BT offers are set to run out did I decide to do one for the wife.

Goals
1. Gain as much 0% BT $ as possible
2. Collect rewards/miles/points
3. Acquire cards from new banks

Pre-A0R Accounts
Current Cards / Limit / Age / Utilization:
AMEX Skymiles Plat. (AU) / $24,500 / 8.5 yrs / 16% (TU & EQ) 7% (EX)
BOA Worldpoints Plat. MC (AU) / $30,000 / 11 yrs / 2%
Ban Rep Ban Rep $700.00 / 4 yrs / 0%
Macy's / $400.00 / 10 yrs / 0%

Other than our mortgage, she has no other revolving or installment accounts open.

Personal Info
HHI: high 5 figures
Mortgage: $1550
Age: 31
Employment: Homemaker

Credit Scores Before
Trans: 776 (True Credit)
Equifax: ?
Experian: 802 (Experian Plus)

Knowing that she didn't have any inquiries on her TU or EX reports, I chose not to monitor all three scores until I launched the A0R. I currently have Experian Plus Triple Advantage for EX data. I also had TC via their free trial for TU data. However, I upgraded to all 3 reports and scores via TC today.

Cards Applied For
Not knowing what affect my wife only having two (store) cards in her name and being an AU on the other two cards would have on the results, I was a little skiddish about the number of cards I should apply for. However, after some reassurance from dmlavigne1 and others that the AU status wouldn't matter, I decided to apply for quite a few.

I didn't post my list ahead of time like others have because I wasn't even sure I was going to post these WOR plans or results. However, after seeing SecondCor521's thread and list of cards, and knowing I was planning on launching this WOR early this week, I decided to go ahead. If nothing else, I figure the results would provide a good comparison since SecondCor521 and I applied for several of the same cards, but we have different personal and credit profiles. It should be interesting to compare the overall results and those of the similar cards applied for.

Cards without links can be found at Card Benefit.

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.)

I applied for all of the cards below in the order listed on the morning of March 5, 2008.
(Bonus, BT term,BT Fee)
1 National City Lifespring Health Everyday Rewards Visa Platinum (12/$0) - Deferred Approved $15,000
2 USBank Baylor Alumni Association Visa Platinum Card (12/$0) - Deferred Approved $21,000
3 CitiBusiness® PremierPassSM Card (1P -> 15K TYP, 12/$0) - Deferred Approved $9,000
4 CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network (1P -> 15K TYP, 12/$0) - Deferred Approved $15,000
5 Citi ProfessionalSM Card with ThankYou Network (1P -> 15K TYP, 12/$0) - Instant Approval $6,000
6 Citi Platinum Select/AAdvantage® World MC (1P -> 25k AA miles) - Instant Approval $11,500
7 Citi Associated Bank Visa Platinum (12/$0) - Instant Approval $15,000
8 Discover More (CB $45, 12/$75) - Instant Approval $8,000
9 Discover Business Miles Card (CB $45, 12/$75) - Deferred Approved $5,000 CL
10 Juniper I Fly America Visa (1P -> $15 credit, 12/$50) - Instant Approval $15,000
11 Juniper Bank Atlantic Rewards Business Card (15/$75) - Deferred Approved Unknown CL
12 Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX (CB $35, 1P -> 10k SPG) - Instant Approval $20,000
13 Starwood Preferred Guest Business AMEX (CB $65, 1P -> 10k SPG) - Instant Approval $30,000
14 IN:NYC Card from AMEX (CB $35, 6/$0) - Deferred Approved $20,000 CL
15 United Mileage Plus Platinum Card (1P -> 25k UA miles) - Deferred Declined
16 Chase Sony (1P -> $100?, 12/$75) - Deferred Declined
17 United Mileage Plus Platinum Business Card (1P -> 25k UA miles) - Deferred Approved $10,000 CL
18 Chase AMA Platinum Visa Business Card (1P -> $50, 12/$75) - Deferred Approved $10,000 CL
19 BofA NEA WorldPoints Platinum Plus Visa (12/$30) - Instant Approval $8,000
20 BofA GA State Alumni AMEX (Targeted) (12/3%) - Deferred Declined
21 Delta Skymiles Gold AMEX (CB $35, 1P -> 15k Skymiles) - Deferred Declined due to app. mix-up
22 Advanta Platinum BusinessCard with Rewards (CB $25, 15/$90) - Instant Approval $2,500
23 WAMU ESPN Total Access Visa Card (applied since I saw SecondCor521 got a decent CL) (6/$0) - Instant Approval $2,000

1A (Post A0R) Chase Disney Rewards Visa (Targeted) (15/$50) - Deferred Approved $12,000 CL
1B (Post A0R) BoA Platinum Plus Visa (Targeted) (12/3%) - Deferred Approved $2,000 CL

Total Applied for: 25
Instant approval: 10
Deferred approval: 11
Declined: 4

Total Cards Approved by Issuer
AMEX: 3 Total - 1 Business and 2 Personal
Citi: 5 Total - 2 Business, 1 Professional and 2 Personal
Chase/First USA: 3 Total - 2 Business and 1 Personal
Juniper/Barclays: 2 Total - 1 Business and 1 Personal
Discover: 2 Total - 1 Business and 1 Personal
BoA: 2 Personal
US Bank: 1 Personal
National City: 1 Personal
Advanta: 1 Business
WAMU: 1 Personal

Credit Scores
Using TC - Includes major changes and/or updates
Date EQ EX TU - Inquiries
3/04 776
3/05 752 760 776 - 9,2,4 including 2 from BRCLYSBANKDE
3/06 752 760 776 - 9,2,1 including NCBK-NCCS; Juniper card appeared on EX
3/07 778 750 776 - 9,2,3 NCBK-NCCS inquiry disappeared; Juniper and BoA NEA on EQ; Discover on EX
3/09 778 750 774 - 9,2,4 as reflected below; Juniper and BOA on TU
3/11 765 750 762
3/12 765 747 760 - 9,2,5 new inquiry from BRCLYSBANKDE; Citi AA and Citi Prof on EX
3/17 758 747 757 - 9,2,6 new inquiry from BOA
3/21 756 745 757 -10,3,6 new inquiries from BOA and Chase for new card apps
3/28 752 745 757 -10,3,6
4/08 728 738 751 -10,3,6
4/17 689 698 747 -10,3,6 BoA NEA BT balance showing on all 3; removed as AU from my BoA MC
4/24 686 698 747 -11,3,6 First USA pull on EQ
4/29 663 690 694 -11,3,6 Disney and Citi Associated BT balances showing on all 3
4/30 663 676 694 -11,3,6 Nat'l City BT on EX
5/01 663 691 694 -11,3,6 SPG and IN:NYC cards showing on EX
5/05 684 678 682 -11,3,3 Baylor BT showing up
5/16 685 678 689 -11,3,0 All TU inquiries fell off

Inquiries from A0R
FIRST USA 04/23/2008 EQ
CHASE BANK USA, NA 03/20/2008 EX
FIA CSNA 03/20/2008 EQ
BK OF AMER 03/15/2008 TU
BRCLYSBANKDE 03/11/2008 TU
NCBK-NCCS 03/06/2008 TU
BANK OF AMERICA 03/05/2008 EX
AMEX 03/05/2008 EX
USBK 03/05/2008 EQ
CBUSA/CBSD 03/05/2008 EQ
CITI USA 03/05/2008 EQ
CITI 03/05/2008 EQ
CITI 03/05/2008 EQ
CHASE 03/05/2008 EQ
ADVANTA 03/05/2008 EQ
FIRST USA 03/05/2008 EQ
WASHMTL/PROV 03/05/2008 TU
BRCLYSBANKDE 03/05/2008 TU
DISCOVER FIN 03/05/2008 TU
AMERIAUTO 05/04/2007 EQ

Available Credit before and after A0R
Before AOR:
- Total CL Before A0R: $55,600
- Total "own" personal CL Before A0R: $1,100
After A0R:
- Total new CL: $246,500
- Total "own" personal CL: $137,500
- Total business CL: $109,000

Completed Balance Transfers
BoA NEA - $8,900 (Deposited BT check provided with card)
Chase AMA Biz - $17,000 (Deposited BT check provided with card)
Associated Bank - $13,350 (Deposited BT check provided with card)
Disney - $10,680 (Deposited BT check provided with card)
Discover Biz - $11,125 (BT online to my CitiBiz)
Lifespring - $13,300 (Deposited BT check mailed to me)
Bank Atlantic Biz - $20,000 (BT over phone to my CitiBiz PP)
Baylor - $18,690 (BT over phone, split between my AT&T and CitiProfessional)
- Totals: $113,045

Rewards/Bonuses Expected
While I'll probably use many of the points for flights, I'll put an estimated value in GCs for ease of providing a total value.
From AOR:
45,000 Thank You Points = ~$450 in GCs (all points showing a/o 4/15)
20,000 Starwood Preferred Guest = ~$200 in GCs (10k points showed up on 4/8 from Biz card; 10k points showed up on 5/6 for personal card)
$250 Card Benefit Cash (confirmed for all $250 as of 3/21; checked received 4/19)
$65 worth of statement credits ($50 AMA and $15 Juniper...both received)
12,000 miles from Discover (1,000/month for 12 months) - ~$100 GC value
25,000 United Airlines Miles - ~$250 value (posted on 4/8)
25,000 American Airlines Miles - ~$250 value (posted on 4/14)
Other/bank signup bonuses:
25,000 American Airlines Miles (for Fidelity account) = ~$250 value (received 15k miles on 5/9, 4 days after transferring in initial $10k)
-----------------------------
Total = $1,815 estimated value (~$1,615 received a/o 5/6/08)

Thanks to...SIS and DaveHanson (the godfathers) for pioneering and continuing to stay active and comment on A0R and other threads...Glitch99, lhendricks92, markkundinger, polardude, cyberkost, win333, Technologist and others who continue to comment on each A0R thread...SecondCor521 for his recent (concurrent) A0R, which allowed me to see many comments/thoughts and additional card apps/links right before launching mine...Thisguy, DjPiLL, dmlavigne1 and others for detailing their WORs...and dvm395, Venturion, elleve, Alimo, squid3, jakeru, brianLp518, hotpep, JohnYeWest and others for the recent A0R threads.

Observations/Notes
- I spent a lot of prep time for this...even when I thought my list of apps was complete, I'd do some more research and reshuffle again. I didn't receive any instant declines...keeping up with comments, trends, etc. from other A0Rs is key (i.e. no wasted apps). Of course, I'm still waiting on several decisions and I'll probably receive a few declines via email/mail, particuarly on the business side.
- More Instant Approvals than I expected, but about the same as I experienced with my A0R. 10 out of 23 this time...8 out of 16 last time.
- RoboForm was helpful and saved me time as compared to my A0R, but I did have to correct and/or delete data that it filled in automatically in most applications.
More comments and updates to come...
- I wasn't planning on applying for the WAMU ESPN card, but decided to once I saw SecondCor521's comment and the unexpectedly high CL. Oh well.
- Credit inquiries make a big difference on the success/failure of apps (obviously). However, not every issuer pulls the same database and the creditboards.com credit pull database isn't 100% accurate. Chase pulled EQ two times during my A0R, but pulled EX on the Disney card post A0R, even though others have reported EQ pulls for my state (GA).
- Per a conversation with a Citi rep, it's not a problem to have a credit balance on a card and you'll be transferred to another department to request the balance via a check. In addition, she also said that $4k was the magic number...if the balance was $4k or more, an additional review would occur to make sure the balance was legit...under $4k and the check would be processed with no issues. I hadn't seen that threshold mentioned elsewhere and thought it was interesting.
- Handling this A0R on behalf of my wife has been pretty easy. With the exception of my wife talking to a CSR when she calls to activate cards, I talk to all CSRs now on her behalf. I call and tell them that I'm calling on my wife's behalf, they ask to speak to my wife to verify her identity and make sure it's okay to speak to me, and then I take it from there. It's been very easy with no questions asked after the verification and approval with my wife...and it's worked for items ranging from general questions to processing BTs.

When's the last time you saw a natural 0/0/0?? Out of curiosity, how did you discuss the option with her and in what time frame did she provider her approval? Asking b/c I'm contemplating the same...

Thanks and good luck (though the initial results are already successful).

Only 2 EX inquiries so far... nice.

That's a lot of instant approvals. I think you'll have good success with this one.

On the United Mileage cards: I also applied for both the personal and business and was deferred for both. Turns out a couple days later when I called them, they told me they didn't even process the personal version as they considered it a duplicate app. Doesn't make much sense to me as I thought the Chase personal/business departments were separate. I'm curious what result you get.

Good luck!

dvm395 said:Only 2 EX inquiries so far... nice.

That's a lot of instant approvals. I think you'll have good success with this one.

On the United Mileage cards: I also applied for both the personal and business and was deferred for both. Turns out a couple days later when I called them, they told me they didn't even process the personal version as they considered it a duplicate app. Doesn't make much sense to me as I thought the Chase personal/business departments were separate. I'm curious what result you get.

Good luck!

Yes, the inquiries are shaping up like they did on my A0R, mostly EQ and a few TU and EX. This lends further credence/evidence to the idea that where you live has a bearing on which reports are pulled.

I saw that on your thread about the duplicate apps issue, and I thought it was odd. I applied and was accepted for both when I did my A0R last year, and I know others had before me. Hopefully I don't have that issue.

Thanks!

YiFeng said:So how many wives have you managed so far?

lol...this is my first and only.

skysurfer1976 said:2 USBank Baylor Alumni Association Visa Platinum Card (12/$0) - Deferred

For this one, somehow I read the term as "No balance transfer fees for balance transferred with this application". So did you request balance transfer with the application? I am wondering if this condition applies to BT requested after receiving the card/credit line.

Any idea?

There's no need to request a BT with the application. I did this 3 days ago and it has posted just as the CSR said it would.

062703 said:

There's no need to request a BT with the application. I did this 3 days ago and it has posted just as the CSR said it would.

I think you have 90 days post app to do a BT.

ahself said:

Any ideas where those 4 TU inquiries from last night might have disappeared to? Maybe I bumped them off in one day.

Oh, and the Juniper I Fly America card is already showing on my EX report.

The 2 BRCLYSBANKDE I got in my last AOR reported the 1st day, then both went away on day 2, and then 1 returned on day 3, so I think that's going to happen for the Juniper Cards, but i'm not sure about the other 2 missing inqs.

Venturion said:You know I had the same exact thing happen with Barclays. I think Barclays is very smart about multiple apps (my four Juniper apps all got the shaft) and also respectful in consolidating the inquiries as a result of multiple apps. However, I don't know why all of them disappear (edit: one of them should stay on)... I hope it isn't b/c you got the shaft too.

Thanks, and thanks Jevon90.

The interesting thing is that of those 4 inquiries, I know I was instantly approved for 3 of them: Juniper I Fly America, WAMU ESPN and Discover More. I guess I'll check again tonight and report back if any of those inquiries return.

I got an approval email for the CitiBusiness card. My wife also got a phone call from Discover Business. She handled the phone call well and was told she was approved for the card. She didn't ask for the CL, but I plan on reallocating from the Discover More anyway.

I was a little reluctant to do an AOR for my wife, for pretty much the same reasons as you - She had pretty much been letting me handle most financial things. At first, I had to coach her before she called the CSRs, but she picked it up pretty quick. After a few weeks, she called me at work one day to tell me that she had just called a Citi CSR and consolidated her CLs onto her new 0% Home Rebate card and requested a BT check for 89% of her new CL, and I hope that's OK??? Yup, that's OK, and now we have a new shared hobby.