Recent AOR, EQUIFAX HAMMERED

I wanted to provide some data for a recent AOR I did using many of the popular offers several other FW AORs have used that are still available. Very busy for the next few weeks but I have time Sundays and hopefully I'll have time to answer questions any FW members might have.

I went for 20 applications, a little high given the credit crunch, but going in I only had 2 Experian inquiries on my report, 0 TU and 0 EQ and I thought I could balance the new inquiries at close to 7/7/6, TrueCredit scores going in were over 790 on all 3 reports, income low six figures, and my highest current credit lines going in were in the 30k range. I'm waiting on several deferred applications but the biggest surprise so far, I got hammered with 14 Equifax inquiries.

Results so far that may be of interest to others planning an AOR:

some cards that pulled Equifax: (P) Personal card (B) Business card

P - Citibank Associated Bank (approved)
P - Citibank Upromise (approved)
P - Citibank American Airlines (approved)
B - Citibank Business (deferred, declined, too many inquiries)
P - Chase Platinum (approved)
P - Peoples (deferred)
P - State Farm (pulled TU, then 1 day later pulled EQ) (deferred)
B - Advanta Plat Bus Rewards (deferred, approved)
P - US Bank Baylor (approved)

If I had it to do over I wouldn't have applied for the State Farm card, intrusive application even required me to select an agent in my area who will probably harass me with sales calls or mail, only a 9 mo. 0% offer, and seems likely to be declined or receive a low limit after them viewing inquiries on 2 reports.

A few things worth commenting on from TransUnion pulled cards:
P - Discover Miles (deferred, approved)
B - Discover Business (deferred, approved)

Discover pulled one TU report immediately, then waited 3 days to pull the next TU report. I began receiving phone calls from them for information. Approval required about 1/2 an hour on the phone and then I got low limits 10k and 8k. I wish I hadn't applied for these. Maybe when the cards arrive I can move the personal line over to the business side and use the BT offer.

B - Bank Atlantic Business (deferred) I should be approved, but after reading the adverse action thread on these clowns (Barclay Juniper) pulling BT checks back out of peoples accounts months later I don't know if I should use this 0% 15 mo. offer when it arrives. I guess it would only appear on my business credit report if they cancel my card after I get a BT, so maybe I'll do it.

Only 2 Experian pulls:
P - WAMU ESPN (approved)
P - BOA Platinum (approved)

I guess these are my biggest priorities right now:
1. Start bumping off the 14 Equifax inquiries as quickly as possible before any AA occurs. I guess I'll use CreditKarma, CreditSecure and PM123.
2. Deciding whether or not it is worth it to use the Bank Atlantic offer.
3. Maybe cancel 1 or 2 of the Citibank cards that I opened fairly recently 1-2 years ago, I'm now up to 8 Citi personal cards and 2 Citi Business and wondering if too many cards could lead to AA.
4. Maybe cancel 1 or 2 Chase and BOA cards too that were opened around a year ago so that I have no more than 5 personal cards from each. The only AA I've ever had was last year when Chase reduced a few of my credit lines, one line was over 40k and reduced to 30k.

If you have any questions, suggestions, comments, or razzing over my planning, fire away.

Did you check out the creditboards.com credit pull db prior to your A0R? It seems like you would've had some idea that EQ was going to get hit more than the others. However, perhaps Citi surprised you by changing who they pulled since that's started recently.

1. I'm not sure how much success you'll have bumping those EQ inqs off now, especially if you only use 3 services. It appears that it's become much tougher to bump EQ. Same with TU.

Thanks ahself, I should have checked creditboards, Citibank was the main one that threw me off, last year I did a small AOR and all the Citi pulls were TU.

The one Citi card I wanted the most, the Business card, declined me. Is there a 4th service for B* that you would recommend I use and a known time frame I should wait before re-applying with Citibank?

Sure slloww, here are the credit lines I know on the cards that did EQ pulls:
P - Citibank Associated Bank (approved) 25K
P - Citibank Upromise (approved) 6K
P - Citibank American Airlines (approved) 15K
P - US Bank Baylor (approved) 20K

jackcrawfish said: zxx7x said: ...Is there a 4th service for B* that you would recommend I use National City Identity Protect (just use any credit card for purchase - you don't need to be a National City Member)

creditkarma isn't going to help you with Equifax -- only tu.

zxx7x said: Bank Atlantic Business (deferred) I should be approved, but after reading the adverse action thread on these clowns (Barclay Juniper) pulling BT checks back out of peoples accounts months later I don't know if I should use this 0% 15 mo. offer when it arrives.

AFAIK, BankATL will not provide BT checks. (Barclays does BT checks for personal cards only.) You will have to do an actual BT. If they approve and send a payment to another creditor, the chances of revoking the payment are close to nil.

Off topic - Don't forget that you can use the State Farm credit card to qualify for free Turbo Tax filing, discussed here: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/deal-discussion/802177

zxx7x said:
...
If I had it to do over I wouldn't have applied for the State Farm card, intrusive application even required me to select an agent in my area who will probably harass me with sales calls or mail, only a 9 mo. 0% offer, and seems likely to be declined or receive a low limit after them viewing inquiries on 2 reports.
...