Ok... it's time to start thinking about my second AOR. It may be a little early, but if I need to close some cards to prepare, now would probably be the best time. The first AOR was quite successful, yet quite eventful. I ended up REALLY pissing Citibank off as they took huge adverse action against me AND my wife by closing all our credit accounts with them (after I had their money though - which I still have). I really abused the hell out of Chase and I managed to avoid adverse action with them. My wife actually had some of her credit lines INCREASED a few months after the AOR. But overall it was a successful AOR for me and my wife, as we took well over 300k in 0% BT money between the two of us. Looking forward to starting version 2.0 this September/October. But there are some things I need to start preparing for now which I am going to list here. Here is the current situation of all our cards. I'll list all the relevant cards. We have other cards not listed (like store cards) but there really isn't any point cluttering this more than it needs to be. All balances will be paid down to 0 before AOR unless noted, which will also shoot my scores much higher.
PrivacyMatters Scores: EX: 713 EQ: 743 TU: 752 Bank Card Limit Balance Notes Advanta Biz Rewards? 10,000 7,910 won't be closing this in Sept since BT is good till Jan Bank Atlantic BizCard 42,000 35,451 Won't be closing this in Sept since BT is good till Dec Chase Biz Cash Rewards 71,500 50,750 still can't believe no adverse action here Citi Biz TYN Visa 35,000 31,300 This is a closed account - won't be able to reallocate Discover Biz Miles 10,000 7,900 BOA Biz Plat Plus 10,000 0 I opened this but it had no good BT offer - duh AMEX Biz SimplyCashSM 3,000 0 BOA NEA 25,500 20,855 HSBC Plat Rewards 10,750 8,875 NatCity Lifestyle 15,000 10,875 RBS Platinum 9.200 0 AMEX Blue 7,000 0 AMEX IN:NYC 2,000 0 BOA Plat Plus 500 0 BOA BankAmericard 500 0 Juniper NatParks 500 0 WAMU Platinum 30,000 0 This had a 0% purchase offer that I didn't use Pentagon CashRewards 24,000 0 My daily use card Kroger Rewards 8,000 0 Discover Miles 1,000 0 Wachovia Rewards 10,000 0 GE Money Canine 13,500 0WIFE AOR - EXISTING CARDS CreditSecure Scores: EX: 768 EQ: 780 TU: 789 (wow these are high) Inquiries: EX: 12 EQ: 0 TU: 6 (trying to get these removed after they reappeared) Bank Card Limit Balance Notes Advanta Biz Rewards 12,500 10,100 won't be closing this in Oct since BT is good till Feb Bank Atlantic BizCard 32,000 28,250 won't be closing this in Oct since BT is good till Jan Citi Biz TYN 33,000 29,500 This is a closed account - won't be able to reallocate Discover Biz Miles 11,600 8,700 Chase Biz Rewards 33,000 14,500 BOA NEA 20,000 16,500 RBS Platinum 9,200 0 NatCity Lifestyle 16,000 0 Epic Fail: Was forced to pay this BT down due to bo-bo AMEX Blue 9,900 0 AMEX IN:NYC 3,000 0 Juniper NatParks 500 0 Discover Miles 1,000 0 TeachersFCU CashBack 10,000 0 Chase PefectCard 7,500 0 daily use card - will not be touching Wacovia Rewards 7,000 0
Now I guess on to the questions. Should I be closing any of these 0 balance accounts now, in order to be able to re-apply for them in a few months when my BTs are up? I think the Juniper Nat Parks cards would be good to close now, since they only have $500 limits and the 0% offers for them are still available. The NatCity card that I screwed up on my wife's side may also be a good candidate. I will have to put together a list of cards I will apply for. I am definitely going to target Citi Cards again this time around (why the hell not?) I will obviously look to re-up my offers with Chase and Bank Of America as I have good existing lines with them. This time around I will definitely target AMEX. I guess i'll do CLIs with them before then try to reallocate to a good BT offer card. I didn't push AMEX last AOR because I had plenty of other cards with good BT offers. But this time around I will push AMEX hard. I really don't care if they FR me. I have the financials to back up my assets. I will not be paying down my Advanta or Bank Atlantic cards unless somebody here suggests otherwise. Those cards have 15 and 16mo offers and I can get a few more months out of them. Plus they are both Biz cards so they will be off my credit report anyways. Should I close the 10mo BT RBS cards after I pay those down? In hopes of reapplying after 12mos? I will also need to find some good banks with good interest options. Rates are much lower now than back in 2007. I guess i'll try to target some of the 6% reward checking accounts. If the rates really stink, I may hold off the AOR. Finally... I am going to consider doing this AOR with my Experian frozen to avoid additional EX inquiries. Good move or not? I wonder if that would help/hurt my chances at all? I know there is a thread or two in regards to this. |
I actually got a Citi credit specialist supervisor to re-open all the accounts, but then Citi decided to close them again a month later. I guess there is some computer algorithm in place that automatically flags accounts to be closed.
