Hello All,

I am longtime reader of Fatwallet finance, but this is my first post.

Small Introduction

Before I started reading Fatwallet finance, I was very conservative with my finances and very skeptical to purchase anything using
credit cards (I always thought, people will spend more if they use credit cards). My perception towards credit cards changed after
reading the success stories and how you guys are able to benefit from credit cards and in general money management. Based on
all the reading, Last year I have done a very small AOR with just 3 cards, which earned me about $700 in interest.
I have also financed part of my oversees home mortgage using the 2.99% fixed for life of balance using Chase Freedom card
(Currently I am paying 11% on my oversees home mortgage ). This helped me to reduce the amount of I pay in interest by more then
half over the life of the loan.

I am planning to do a small AOR to get some additional money, which I am planning to use for my Vacation
next year. Below are my details

Age 34
HHI - 80K
No Mortgage in USA.
SCORES

Date       Service        tu    ex    eq
07/08/2008 CitiIDMonitor  693   713   720
07/29/2008 Chase Id Pro   685   695   720

INQUIRIES

TransUnion 07/09/2008 TRANS UNION 
 Equifax    06/12/2008   AT&T SRVS 
 TransUnion 05/28/2008   FIRST USA NA 
 Equifax    07/22/2007   FIRST USA 
 TransUnion 07/21/2007   US BANK 
 TransUnion 07/21/2007   BK OF AMER 
 TransUnion 03/16/2007   FIRST USA NA 
 Experian   01/08/2007   TRANSUNION RESID CR SO 
 TransUnion 01/08/2007   TU MRTG DPT 
 TransUnion 11/18/2006   CITI 
I don't have any Mortgage in USA. I don't know why I have this enquiry TransUnion 01/08/2007   TU MRTG DPT

ACCOUNTS

Personal                              Limit   Balance       
Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards        9.5k    Daily use
Citi Platinum AMEX                    15.5k   0
BoA
Platinum Plus                         10.2k   0
US Bank
Platinum Card                         11.5k   0
Chase
Freedom Visa			      21.5k   18k (2.99% fixed for life).
Freedom Master                        2k      0 (Recently reallocated to Freedom Visa Original 5000)
Platinum                              2k      0 (Recently Reallocated to Freedom Visa - Original 9000)
Discover
Regular Card                          7k      Daily use
Credit card from local credit union   1k      0 (This is my oldest card from 2001 
Store Cards
JC Penny                              500     0
Macy's Visa                           6.5k    0
Kohl’s                                1k      0
Mervyns                               200     0

Cards I am planning to apply

I am not planning to apply more then 10-15 cards.
 
ISSUER                Type of card Term  Rate Fee  Apply A/D       
AMEX
AMEX ??? I want to get some points for a gift card or hotel stays - please suggest 
US Bank                 Personal    12     0    0  Pro Bulls
Chase                   Personal    15     0    0  I have got a pre-approved offer in mail
Chase                   Business    12     0    75 Chase Business Rebate 
Chase                   Business    12     0    99 Chase Cash
Citi                    Personal    12     0    0  Citi Associated
Citi                    Personal    12     0    0  Citi Professional
Citi                    Business    12     0    0  Citi Business
BoA                     Personal    12     0    0  Platinum Plus
Discover                Personal    12     0    0  Free 9" Philips Portable DVD Player

Any suggestions in making my AOR successful are really appreciated.

Thanks to jackcrawfish for the format and some apps. Thanks in advance to everyone for their suggestions.
Updated with one more card info which I forgot in my initial list.

Is Kumar a Polish name?

I wouldn't advise you to do a AOR unless you are preparing to lower your utilization on your Chase Freedom Card closed to 0%.
Issuers esp. in this credit crunch enviroment will not like what they see in your credit report. Try to change this personal card to Business Card by calling Chase and then make sure it's not reported on your report any more.
Other than that try limiting cards to no more than 5 as Citi is now taking AA on seeing so many inquiries on one's cerdit card.

To answer the questions.
I have completed the CHASE reallocation in May (Offer was expiring in june. So I had to take it).
Chase balance is showing in the credit reports now.
I have some extra cash (about 5K) which I can use to pay off part of the balance on Chase. Do you guys think it will help ?

I have updated my OP. The oldest account is from 2001.

Thanks

My recommendation would be to first pay your chase freedom down to 49% utilization (or about $10,500) when you can, and wait for that balance to report on all three of your credit reports prior to pulling the trigger on any additional applications. You will get much better results if you do that, IMO.

Also waiting for your newest opened account to be at least 6 months old (or longer... ideally 12 months) will also help a lot. You haven't really made clear how old your newest account is, but I'm guessing you might not be there yet.

Consider also performing soft pull CLIs, especially with your BoA card (I'll bet they would match other largest lines and give you 25k if you played it right) and wait for that to report prior to performing your new credit account applications. You will get your best CLI results also after paying down your freedown utilization and waiting for it to report.

Today, I have noticed an unusual drop in my credit score. There are no changes in my credit report. I am checking the scores using Chase ID Protection

Scores as of 08/15/08

Date       Service        tu    ex    eq
08/15/08   Chase Id Pro   685   695   720
08/20/08   Chase Id Pro   618   644   653

no late payments, no new credit cards.

Any Idea what might have triggred to lower my scores?
Thanks for the help

The Chase reallocations were showing before 08/15/08 also. There were no settlements. I have no balances other then 18K on Chase.

Anyways, This week I have paid 9K out of 18K . Will have to check how this effects the score.