I did an A0R last year and wrapped it up a month ago. Like with my first A0R and my wife's A0R, I was just going to do this one and post the results. However, after both of those, I wondered whether I could've done better with feedback from the FWF community. So, while I think I'm pretty close to finalizing my list, I thought I'd get some feedback. I hope to fire this off next Monday.
Credit Cards Current Cards / Limit / Age / Utilization: Pre-A0R Cards AMEX Skymiles Plat. / $24,500 / 9 yrs / 12% (every day spender) BOA Worldpoints Plat. MC / $30,000 / 11 yrs / 5% (secondary spender) FIA Schwab Worldpoints Visa / $10,000 / 2 yrs / 0% Cards from A0R 1.0 Personal Citi Prof TYP / $50,000 / 1 yr / 0% Citi AT&T Universal / $19,000 / 1 yr / 0% Chase Sony / $20,000 / 1 yr / 0% Chase Disney / $9,440 / 1 yr / 49% (BT offer ends 9/08) Juniper I Fly / $15,000 / 1 yr / 0% Discover Miles / $8,000 / 1 yr / 0% PNC Select / $20,000 / 1 yr / 0% AMEX Blue / $2,000 / 3 mos / 0% (tried to convert SPG to Blue and CSR messed up, close account and opened new account instead) Business Citi Biz TYP / $20,000 / 1 yr / 0% Chase Freedom Biz / $15,000 / 1 yr / 0% BoA Plat Biz / $12,500 / 1 yr / 0%
Total CL: $255,440
Recently closed cards - Citi Biz AA, Citi Biz PP, United Mileage Biz (converted to Freedom Biz), SPG Biz AMEX, United Mileage (consolidated with Disney), SPG AMEX, and Citi AA.
Other than our mortgage, I have no other revolving or installment accounts open.
Personal Info HHI: high 5 figures Mortgage: $1550 Age: 33
Planned Apps CB = http://www.cardbenefit.com (CB bonuses appear to vary depending on account, e.g. new user vs. someeone who's received bonuses before. Read more here.)
(Expected Inquiry, Card, Bonus, BT term/BT Fee) 1 TU, National City Quilter's Rewards (12/$0) - Deferred Approved $12,500 2 EX (Change), Citi Associated Bank Visa Platinum (12/$0) - Instant Approval $15,000 3 EX (Change), CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network (1P -> 15K TYP, 12/$0) - Deferred Approved $6,000 4 EQ, USBank Baylor Alumni Association Visa Platinum (12/$0) - Deferred Approved $10,000 5 EQ, NWA WorldPerks Visa Signature (20k WP miles) - Deferred Approved $5,000 6 EQ, Chase Business Rebate (CB $35, 12/$99) - Deferred Approved $10,000 7 TU, Discover Open Road (CB $45, 12/$75) - Deferred Approved $8,000 8 TU, WAMU ESPN Total Access Visa Card - Targeted for 0% BT (not purchases) (12/$$150) - Instant Approval $27,500 9 TU, Juniper Bank Atlantic Rewards Business Card (15/$75) - Deferred Approved $10,000 10 EX, BoA Platinum Plus (12/$0) - Instant Approval $15,000 11 TU, Banco Popular Platinum MasterCard - Targeted (12/$100) - Deferred Approved $13,200 CL
Total Applied for: 11 Instant approval: 3 Deferred approval: 8
Credit Scores Using TC - Includes major changes and/or updates Date EQ EX TU - Inquiries 7/02 793 769 788 - (pre-A0R, 1,5,0) 7/03 789 763 782 - (3,8,4) - BoA Plat Plus showing on EX 7/06 789 763 780 - (3,8,6) - Inq from last year reappeared on TU and Nat'l City Inq showed up 7/15 781 743 778 - (3,8,7) - Sony BT balance showing on EX 7/18 757 743 761 - (3,8,7) - Sony BT showing on all 3 08/5 754 729 717 - (3,8,7) - A couple more BTs showing
Inquiries NCBK-NCCS 07/03/2008 TransUnion BANCOPOPULAR 07/03/2008 TransUnion BANK OF AMERICA 07/02/2008 Experian CBSD/UFC 07/02/2008 Experian CITI 07/02/2008 Experian USBK 07/02/2008 Equifax CHASE 07/02/2008 Equifax BRCLYSBANKDE 07/02/2008 TransUnion WAMU 07/02/2008 TransUnion DISCOVER FIN 07/02/2008 TransUnion AMEX 04/30/2008 Experian ALLIANT CU 04/04/2008 Equifax CHASE BANK USA, NA 07/25/2007 Experian BANK OF AMERICA 03/27/2007 Experian DISCOVER FINANCIAL SER 03/21/2007 Experian AMEX 03/21/2007 Experian
New Credit from A0R: $132,000
Completed Balance Transfers so far Sony - $17,700 (Deposited BT check mailed to me) BoA Platinum Plus - $45,500 (BT'd over phone to checking account) Associated Bank - $13,350 (Deposited BT welcome check) Banco Popular - $11,700 (Deposited BT welcome check) Baylor - $8,900 (BT over phone to BoA Plat Plus) Discover Open Road - $13,800 (Deposited BT check I requested) Chase Biz Rebate - $21,400 (Deposited BT welcome check) WAMU ESPN - $25,000 (BT'd to debit card, which was deposited into checking) Bank Atlantic - $20,000 (BT'd to BoA Plat Plus) National City - $11,125 (Deposited BT check I requested) - Totals: $188,475
Rewards/Bonuses Expected 15,000 Thank You Points 20,000 NWA Worldperks Points (received 7/31) $80 Card Benefit Cash (confirmed as of 7/19)
Notes - I received 0% BT convenience checks for my existing Sony card and decided to use one of them concurrent with this A0R. - I intentionally kept the overall number of applications down (i.e. not 20 or 30) due to the continued reports of A/A by Citi and others and the increased scrutiny that issuers seem to be applying. I wanted to take advantage of some offers from new banks (e.g. National City, US Bank, WAMU etc.) and take advantage of offers where I could leverage some of my existing CLs.
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I don't think you should use a citibank upromise as your planned BT target. I think you should get a Biz card. Sure, there's a transfer fee, but you will be able to reallocate credit to it from other biz, the professional, and personal cards, and the utilization will be hidden from your credit report. It's worth the $75 or $99 or whatever bucks. The upromise card, being a personal card with a 0% is going to be hard or imopssible to reallocate anything too.
For similar reason, I would normally recommend that biz card trick with Chase as well, especially after you pay off the Disney in only a couple months. (actually, you might pay it off now as part of the AOR, especially if you need card to BT to).
i'd be tempted to give the WAMU a shot. It might not work out, but at least you'll get a free pfico. That's one thing that my card with a $250 limit has going for it.
That's a good idea about the Citi cards, particularly since most of the apps I have listed are personal and it'll be tough to keep my utilization under control if I take advantage of all the BT offers. I guess I need to decide whether I want to do a Biz TY again, regular Biz or something else.
I talked to an AMEX rep today about my Blue card and what happened when trying to convert from the SPG AMEX. They apologized, reopened my SPG card and, after 24 hours when it's back online, they're going to move the previous CL of $24,500 to the Blue card and then close the SPG card again...at least I got something for getting a new hard inquiry.
Also, I deposited that Sony BT check at a BoA ATM yesterday afternoon, it credited to my account last night and I got an automated fraud alert call from Chase/Sony tonight verifying that I actually deposited it...pretty quick processing.
I have been receiving WAMU offers every week. I pulled the trigger on this one. After spending 4k receive 10% rebate on gas purchases for 6mo. 0% on purchases until 1/1/2010 if you transfer a balance (100 min) with application, max cl 30k. Instant approval for 30k.
Does CB still work? I read the following at http://www.freefrequentflyermiles.com
For cardbenefit.com, anyone who received money from them by following my directions for special dollar bonuses before March 25, 2008, can still receive the excellent bonuses that were offered before. Just log into your account and then click on Apply & Earn Cash near the top of the page. You should see offers according to the following schedule:
...
This was posted probably by the very person who introduces new applicants to the creditors for the commisions via CB, but he's saying "Before March 25, 2008"
Does CB still work regardless of his presence or absence?
Yes, CB stills works. Just read the rest of what he states on that page (click Credit Cards on the left-hand side).
"New applicants through cardbenefit.com are offered $25 per card. This is not mentioned on the front page of the website. To see the offers, click on Longin at the top right of the front page, click on Register an account, and then provide your email address and a password. Then login to your account and click on Apply & Earn Cash near the top of the page you get."
When I log into my wife's account (I used CB for her A0R), there is a long list of bonuses she can apply for or refer and the $ amounts seem to match those that Gary had.
When I created a new account, the bonuses are $25 across the board (with a few exceptions), like Gary said.
At least I can use the referral links from my wife's account and the money will still come to us (me).
After some hesitation, which included re-thinking and re-organizing some of the applications, I decided to fire off the A0R yesterday. I think the final spark that got me going was this thread about TU inquiries starting to reappear on credit reports...I didn't want inquiries I'd bumped off to reappear and negatively influence application decisions.
Application changes: - I took out the Discover Biz application since I couldn't find one with good 0% BT terms. - I included a CitiBiz TYP application. Even though I already have one, I'm hoping I'll be approved since it seems to have the most favorable BT terms as well (e.g. no BT fee). - I included the NWA WorldPerks application for the bonus miles. Knowing that the Delta/NWA merger is approaching and frequent flier accounts are supposed to be combined, these will convert to Delta Skymiles, which are what I primarily fly/use anyway.
Results so far: - Approved for Citi Associated, WAMU ESPN and BoA Platinum Plus...deferred on the rest. Updates in the OP - Primary surprise is the $27,500 CL with WAMU...sweet! Glad I decided to go for that one.
I just checked TC to see what happened with my CR and inquiries. For the most part, the pulls were pretty balanced across CRAs. Updates in the OP.
Like Mike, Citi pulled EX instead of EQ, which they had pulled (EQ) for my wife back in March. Even with a recent CLI request for her, Citi cited EQ as a source for their decision to not CLI. So, it's interesting that they switched to EX for me.
I put the National City application at the top because I've read that they are sensitive to inquiries. However, it doesn't appear that they've pulled my report yet. I looked back at my wife's pulls and noticed that they pulled the day after the A0R. Now I wonder if I should've done that app yesterday and started the A0R today...oh well. Hopefully the new TU inquiries won't spook them too much.
A few updates: - A National City rep called about my app. After verifying my info., she asked if I had recently applied for more credit cards other than their card. I mentioned that I applied for a few credit cards to get some bonuses and other offers. Knowing that they pulled TU, I mentioned a couple of the cards that also pulled TU. She then asked if that was all. After pulling up my list of inquiries, I then mentioned the two others that pulled TU. She again asked if that was all and I told her it was. She said that my application would be processed. I'm not too confident in getting approved after having that conversation.
- A Discover rep called as well. It went much easier and she mainly wanted to verify my info. However, she noted that I had a Discover card and asked why I wanted another one. I mentioned the money back option for gas purchases and that I'd probably consolidate/close the current one if I got the new one. She said ok and that I was approved for $8,000 (after I asked about the CL). Not a great CL, but at least I'll be able to CLR.
- I got an approval email for the NWA card...CL unknown.
- I called to find out the status for the Citi Biz card and found out I was approved...CL unknown since I didn't talk to a rep.
- The Banco Popular card showed up on my EX report today...it listed a CL of $13,200...nice surprised. FYI, when I talked to the rep during my application, I asked him about typical CLs since I wasn't familiar with the card. He said that the lowest he'd seen was $500 and the highest was $20k.
ahself said:- A National City rep called about my app. After verifying my info., she asked if I had recently applied for more credit cards other than their card. I mentioned that I applied for a few credit cards to get some bonuses and other offers. Knowing that they pulled TU, I mentioned a couple of the cards that also pulled TU. She then asked if that was all. After pulling up my list of inquiries, I then mentioned the two others that pulled TU. She again asked if that was all and I told her it was. She said that my application would be processed. I'm not too confident in getting approved after having that conversation. It sounds to me like she suspects you applied for others. Is it possible/legal for them to pull another report from some other bureau? I know for mortgages banks pull all 3, but it seems they only ever pull one for CCS. Does anyone know why?
To update the National City item... I called in to check on the status. I wasn't sure if this made sense based on my previous conversation with the credit analyst and the fact that I talked to her on Monday, but I was curious. I talked to another credit analyst in their credit department and she asked me to hold on. When she came back on the line, she asked if I was there and paused for a moment and almost seemed to sigh. She then asked if I called a couple days ago and I said I did, and was just curious about the status; I said that the previous rep said it would be processed. This rep said it was processed and I was approved. Yeah! However, she began to grill me again. She asked if I applied for a bunch of new credit cards. I said I applied for a few and that the previous rep asked me about those. This rep asked why I applied for several new ones and I said it was just four. She said they saw five on my report (which was obviously from TU) and I said "That's correct, four plus yours (National City)". I said that I wanted to get some sign-up and other bonuses. She was okay with that answer but advised me that I shouldn't sign up for any more cards as it would negatively affect my credit.
So, based on my experience with NC, I believe it may make sense to apply for their app a day or two before an A0R.
I also asked her about the fact that they don't include income on the application and she said they don't usually need it, but they'll ask for it if they do. She also said that they rely on available credit to determine the CL.
Also, for those not familiar with it, here's a link to the Credit Card Application status check thread, which lists phone numbers and web sites for various credit card issuers.
ahself said:Primary surprise is the $27,500 CL with WAMU...sweet! Glad I decided to go for that one. You are seeing more reports of targeted offers from WAMU bring in nice credit lines.
Rorer714 said:ahself said:Primary surprise is the $27,500 CL with WAMU...sweet! Glad I decided to go for that one. You are seeing more reports of targeted offers from WAMU bring in nice credit lines.
I agree. I was very encouraged by your post above and quite pleased by my results.
I probably average 6-7 WAMU offers in the mail every month; but almost all of them have been for 0% on purchases. The 0% BT offer was a nice surprise, especially with the CL I received.
I'm curious bc neither my husband nor I have EVER received a WAMU offer and we have/had mortgages with them and at times have kept over 300K in accounts.
My sons both have WAMU cards but they were carried over from Providian.
They have told me that WAMU keeps increasing their limits-- so maybe this is a new business plan.
LaJollaInvestor said:Did you have a previous relationship with WAMU ?
No, no previous relationship with them. I just started receiving CC offers in the mail last year, after my first A0R, and continued to get them until I finally got the 0% BT offer last month.
Updates: - I've been approved for all cards except for the Baylor Alumni, and that's only because it's still being processed. Updates in the OP.
- I received BT welcome checks for the Banco Popular card...nice surprise.
- I CLR'd from my Schwab and WorldPoints Platinum cards to the BoA Platinum Plus to create a new CL of $51,500. I then transferred $45,500 into my BoA checking account. As others have reported, the BoA CSRs are very encouraging when it comes to moving lines around and doing BTs into checking. In fact, even the Schwab CSR offered to BT into my BoA account.
- I was also able to CLR between my Discover cards, moving $7,500 from my old one to the new one, creating a new $15,500 CL. I was pretty happy with this since, as reported in the CC reallocation thread, it's not very easy to CLR between Discover personal cards. The first CSR I talked to said it can't be done. I called back and talked to another who said she thought it couldn't be done, but would verify. Then a "customer service" rep got on the line, verified what I wanted to do and said she'd have to fill out an application, which would then be processed by their credit department...she said it would be treated like a CLI on the new card, taking from the old card. I called back later in the day to get set up for online access and, out of curiousity, asked about the CLR. The rep said she'd check and, after a long hold, came back and said she talked to the credit department and they processed it right then, just as I wanted. After reading some of the posts on the CLR thread, I think I got lucky by only having to talk to a few reps, not to mention having it go through at all.
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