Key strategies:

- Leverage ability to lock reports to ensure that issuers do not pound my EQ (man that sounds weird) or pull TU off-schedule.
- Consolidate balances on each side (personal, business).
- US Bank/Elan seems to dish out CL at a smidge above whatever you BT, so consolidate into the US Bank.
- Fallback - on the personal side only (don't want to piss off the smart bus folks) - if US Bank defers, do the same BT into the Discover More.
- Leverage b* with CR monitor services to tidy up afterwards, lest there be adverse action.

Credit monitoring services and CR lockage tools:
- TrueCredit (b* and lockage)
- Equifax CreditWatch Gold (lockage, do not use for b* for fear of choppage)
- CreditCheckTotal (b*)
- Chase ID Protection (www.chaseidprotect.com) (b*)
- National City ID Protect (b* - TC reseller)
- Credit Diagnosis (b* - TC reseller)
- Credit Karma (b*, TU only)

Used for a week (see note in bold)

- Privacy Matters 123 (b* - TC reseller)

***Note - Inadvertently let Privacy Matters 123 self-cancel. Cannot sign up again for 6 months per rep on phone (online sends me to trial membership and tells me I am ineligible). Replaced with Credit Diagnosis.***

NOTE: Freezing EX took it out of view on Chase ID Protection, Privacy Matters 123, National City ID Protect, and Credit Diagnosis. No impact to TrueCredit or CreditCheckTotal. No impact from freezing TU or EQ. All signups except Credit Diagnosis were done before EX freeze - some have reported signup problems after freezing EX.

Results:

In order of application:
BUS: BankAtlantic (Juniper) Rewards Business Card 0% for 15 mo $75 capped - **Instant Approved** $20,000 CL
PER: Baylor Alumni Visa Platinum (US Bank) 0% 12 mo for BT with app no fee - **CANCELLED**
PER: BofA NEA WorldPoints AMEX 0% 12 mo $30 BT capped - **Instant Approved** $5,000 CL UPDATE 4/23 CLI --> $7,500
PER: Discover More targeted 0% for life (rec'd offer in the mail 4/12) $75 BT capped, make min 2 purch/mo starting in Jan 09 - **Approved** $12,000 CL
BUS: M&T (Elan/US Bank) Business 0% 6 mo for BT with app only no fee - **CANCELLED**
BUS: CitiBusiness with 15K TY points 0% 12 mo from first BT no fee - **Approved $6,000 CL**
PER: Citi Associates Bank Platinum Visa 0% 12 mo from first BT no fee - **Approved $15,000 CL**
PER: Citi Home Rebate 0% 12 mo from first BT 3% fee uncapped - **Approved $5,300 CL**
BUS: Chase Business Platinum Visa 0% 12 mo $99 BT capped - **DECLINED**
PER: National City Lifespring Health Everyday Rewards Visa Platinum 0% 12 mo no fee - **DECLINED**
PER: Juniper IFly Visa 0% 12 mo $50 BT capped -**Instant Approved** $20,000 CL, Tier 1 rate 9.99%

Personal Approvals: 5
Business Approvals: 2
Cancelled due to paranoid credit ninja: 2
Declines: 2

Total new personal CL: $59,800
Total new business CL: $26,000
Total new CL: $85,800

Starting inqs:
2 TU (3/08)
9 EX (1 within last 12 mo)
2 EQ (1 within last 6 mo)

Viewable inqs at end of AOR application day:
7 TU (+5 - Juniper x2, Chase, National City, Discover)
10 EX (+1 - BofA)
6 EQ (grrr!) (+4 - Citi x3, US Bank)
Inquiries that are MIA - 1x US Bank (presume they are using the first one they pulled)
4/22 Inquiry oddity - the 4/21 TU inquiries for Juniper and Discover vanished.
4/23 The inqs that vanished on 4/22 are back. The 4/22 Chase and National City inqs vanished, presumably to return tomorrow.
4/24 The Chase and National City inqs are back.

Critical Observations
- Based on this and other AORs, expect US Bank apps to leave you in limbo - even if ultimately approved.
- Juniper, based on its being the last app, does not appear to be particularly inquiry-sensitive at app time.
- Associated Bank is in a different Citi "bucket" than the Citi Pro. Same is likely true for Citi Home Rebate and Citi Business.
- National City is *very* inquiry-sensitive, in addition to being sensitive to new accounts in last 12 months and amount of revolving credit already available. They also have no facility for instant online approval. Not recommended for AOR.
- US Bank, as noted by (some) others, can be conservative/picky.
- After 3 of the 5 new personal accounts hit EQ, FICO on that report recovered almost completely (AOR start - 717 - after 3 accounts hit - 716).

Detailed Activity

Apps (4/21):
BUS: BankAtlantic (Juniper) Rewards Business Card 0% for 15 mo $75 capped - **Instant** Approved $20,000 CL
PER: Baylor Alumni Visa Platinum (US Bank) 0% 12 mo for BT with app no fee - **Deferred 7-10 bus days** requested $22K in BT (post-deferral)
Pull CCT - No Juniper pull, US Bank pulled both TU and EQ! Ow! Wait - TC says US Bank only pulled EQ.
Freezing EQ
PER: BofA NEA WorldPoints AMEX 0% 12 mo $30 BT capped - **Instant Approved** $5,000 CL UPDATE 4/23 CLI --> $7,500
PER: Discover More targeted 0% for life (rec'd offer in the mail 4/12) $75 BT capped, make min 2 purch/mo starting in Jan 09 - **Approved** $12,000 CL Originally Deferred to verify identity and employer name/number - Originally requested $22K in BT
Pull CCT - BofA pulled EX, Discover pulled TU (expected EX). Both places that have pulled TU have deferred.
Freezing TU
Un-freezing EQ until 4/22/2008
BUS: M&T (Elan/US Bank) Business 0% 6 mo for BT with app only no fee - **Deferred 7-10 bus days - UPDATE 4/25 CANCELLED** requested $28K in BT (post-deferral)
BUS: CitiBusiness with 15K TY points 0% 12 mo from first BT no fee - **Approved $6,000 CL** Originallly deferred 30 days, got accessorize page at end of app.
M&T inquiry is a no-show. CitiBusiness pulled EQ as expected.
PER: Citi Associates Bank Platinum Visa 0% 12 mo from first BT no fee - **Approved $15,000 CL** Originally deferred, got accessorize page at end of app.
PER: Citi Home Rebate 0% 12 mo from first BT 3% fee uncapped - **Approved $5,300 CL** Originally Deferred, did NOT get accessorize page
Un-freezing TU
Freezing EQ
Skipping the Discover Business to see how Discover personal app goes
BUS: Chase Business Platinum Visa 0% 12 mo $99 BT capped - **Instant decline?** Your credit card application has been received and we will be sending you a response via U.S Mail within 30 days. UPDATE 4/24 **DECLINED** May have failed instant due to EQ freeze.
PER: National City Lifespring Health Everyday Rewards Visa Platinum 0% 12 mo no fee - UPDATE 4/23 - **DECLINED**
CCT - Bank of America pulled EQ while I was making Citi apps. TC - BofA did not pull EQ, they pulled EX. TC is probably accurate.

Apps (4/22)
PER: Juniper IFly Visa 0% 12 mo $50 BT capped -**Instant** Approved $20,000 CL, Tier 1 rate 9.99%

4/21/08 Happy-Appy Day-of-Apps Postmortem:
- Suspect the Chase Business app died due to EQ freeze. The response just came back too quickly and there is no Chase or First USA inq on my reports.
- Citi *did* pull EQ for all 3 apps.
- Juniper pull showed up on TU.
- 7 inquiries for 10 apps. Appears that US Bank did not pull a second time for the business app. The two "missing" are Chase and National City.
- US Bank pulled EQ instead of TU. This is OK, as it was the first app in my list to go to EQ, but it appears this is their report of preference in my state (GA).
- Double-requested BT of $22K to reallocate existing personal CR balances because the 1st app was deferred (unfortunately, so was the second).
- Requested $28K of business BT to take advantage of 0% for existing balances. Also deferred.
- All Citi apps were approved. This includes the Home Rebate, even though it did NOT cough up the accessorize page at the end of the app. The Home Rebate CL looks funny, like I hit an artificial limit. Finally, it looks like I did a good job of avoiding Citi nastiness.
- Pretty much confirmed that Associated Bank is in a different CL "bucket."
- CitiBusiness CL is identical to what I got with my first CitiBusiness last year. Suspect this is a "standard opening CL" for the card.
- US Bank is "still under review "Verifying certain information"" according to their credit ninja line (I won't be calling the ninja again)
- Discover is still pending.
- Chase automated says "within 2 weeks."
- National City is non-automated for apps. Not pushing since there are no inquiries from them - they need to pull something before they can consider the app.
- CreditCheckTotal (CCT) sucks for tracking inquiries. I have at least one it doesn't show, and one or two it has attributed to the right bank on the wrong report.

4/22/08 Day 2: Watching & tweaking
- Chase inquiry to TU showed up this morning. All part of my plan!
- Credit Check Total (CCT) is still incorrect in re: BofA (shows an EQ inq that is not anywhere else) and Citi personal (shows 1 inq s/b 2).
- Chase ID Protect (www.chaseidprotect.com) is *not* updating. "New" report is dated yesterday. Could this be because EQ is locked?
- Applied for Juniper IFly at original suggestion of markkundinger. Woo hoo! $20K instant! And at the 9.99% Tier 1 rate to boot!
- This thread at Creditboards indicates no such thing as an instant approval at National City, but will find out in 6-7 days if I was approved via arrival of the card in the mail.
- National City inquiry showed up on TU.
- Status at Chase is now "being reviewed," "7-10 days."
- Status at Discover is unchanged.
- No word from US Bank (no "you will get a letter" emails, so this is good).
- Locked TU after last inquiry (National City) showed up. EQ has been locked since yesterday.
- Yesterday US Bank pulled for app #1 but not #2 (either that or the inqs consolidated). Assuming that they are working both apps under pull #1.
- EQ inquries dropped FICO down from 717 to 706.
- Called Discover, they wanted employer name/number and asked ID verification questions. $12K approved. Should receive card by 4/29. BTs will be processed lowest to highest order. Not liking the utilization implications.

4/23/08 Day 3: Settling in, first decline
- Froze EX.
- US Bank says 3-5 days. Chase automated says 7-10. No working # for M&T Bus. Looks like waiting game for remaining cards.
- Called National City - DECLINED due to new accounts and excessive inquiries. Guess I had to lose at least one. But this is a good data point on how sensitive they are - they were the last to pull TU, and they saw 5 inquiries besides their own. 2 were from late March and 3 were from 4/21 (day of the AOR).
- CCT is way out of whack on reporting inquiries. It invents some and hides others. But its alerting appears to be accurate, along with its counts.
- $2,500 CLI on the BofA NEA AMEX. From the website. Did not specify desired CL. Not instant.
- Juniper personal card showed up on EX.

4/24/08 Day 4: Ok, I want my decisions please
- Chase Business - Declined - click for detail.
- Discover More is reporting on EX. $0 balance (does not reflect BTs - whew).

4/25/08 Day 5: Where in the world is M&T Business
- Baylor and M&T were actually both in same underwriting unit. They were unable to verify business address, possibly due to a move last summer. This turned into a request for business financials and articles of incorporation for my sole proprietorship(!) to consider both the business and personal applications(!), as well as an explanation of why I was applying for a Baylor card (are you a Baylor alum?). Decided it was not worth the hassle. Diplomatically cancelled the business app. Will let US Bank/Elan kill the personal app on their own.

4/30/08: FICO and CR watching
- After BofA, Juniper, and Citi Home Rebate hit EQ, FICO recovered to 716. It was at 717 at the start of the AOR. 2 more accounts to go (Citi Associates Bank, Discover).
- TU shows BofA, Juniper, and Discover.
- EX shows BofA, Juniper, Discover, Citi Home Rebate.

5/2/08: B*
- Two of the 4/1 inqs on TU fell off (yesterday, today). Might even be more by end of day.
- EQ inqs are still holding tight - for now. I expect them to be gone within a week and a half based on studies by win333.

5/5/08: B*
- TU inqs are gone.

5/10/08: B*
- 1st AOR inq fell off of EQ on 5/9. Remaining ones fell off on 5/10. 20 days from AOR.
- US Bank wrote about Baylor app - want me to call the verification dept. Letter does not ask for specific info otherwise.

5/12/08: Baylor is Dead
- US Bank will not process the personal app without detailed information on my business. Cancelled the app, as I have no interest in tangling my business and personal up so substantially.