Moonbutt said:The Citi Biz with 15k TYP and the Juniper Bank Atlantic links are dead now, both here and in Rhizzlebop's AOR post as well; they must have died just recently. Crap. I'm still looking for alternatives.The citi link needs to be fixed but works. Link
Edit: BA same thing, take out "http"

Out of curiosity, I'd be interested in knowing what comes up for BoA self-check for pre-approved offers for you? You can check here: https://preapproved.bankofamerica.com/cc/SelfInquiry.aspx and it does a soft-pull. (So, it will see your credit report but won't leave behind a hard inquiry.)

Wife recently tried it (she doesn't have any BoA cards at the moment) and it brought up three fairly firm offers, and I found i interest that each were for exactly $11.5k CL. The offers themselves weren't anything compelling, but the $11.5k CL it came back with could be useful data in understanding their system.

I then tried it on myself, and it said there were no offers for me.

I doubt the Boa pre-approveds site will give offer terms for BT purposes any better than the "FAATCY" 0% 12-mo no fee platinum plus offer known to fatwalleters, or one of the $30 BT fee capped 0% 12-mo NEA card. For example, with my wife it came back with:

1. 0% 12-month BT with uncapped 3% BT fee
2. 0% 6-month BT $75 BT fee cap
3. some Am Ex 1.25 point per dollar reward card

All three offers were locatable on BoA's public web site, I believe, but the interesting thing is that each of the three offers came with a pre-determined "firm" $11.5k credit limit. If you tried the pre-approved offer check, and it gave you a "firm" offer for additional CL, it might give you some additional insight about how much more BoA might be willing to extend their combined exposure (sum of all the credit limits of all BoA cards.) I was thinking you might be able to use that to decide how much more CLI to ask for, but it sounds like you've already done CLIs on all your BoA cards recently. Still, it might be confidence instilling to know they are probably going to approve your application of your forthcoming application spree, before you actually take the plunge.

Also, by default most BoA banking customers get the "limited" version of BoA's billpay, which does not allow credit card to be used as the funding source. That's the key feature of the Billpay choice. (And it's not offered by any other credit card issuer, either.) The billpay transaction shows up like a purchase, and gets treated with grace period (if you pay balance in full). It won't give you rewards points, though, but it's a great flexible way to borrow money at no interest. After activating the billpay choice, you add the payee by locating their name in the menu and entering your account number, etc. They have a pretty good list of payees, I know off the top of my head they are missing Capital One but they have pretty much all the others (Citi, Chase, Discover, Am Ex...)

OK, the BOA cards are all zeroed, but the AM3X still shows the damned $3k balance at all three bureaus. I've seen references elsewhere to disputing reports at the CRA's; is this doable for balances? I do have the relevant bill stating a credit balance handy. That's nearly 10% of utilization right there.

so, still waiting...

I also have my fourth WAMU offer, but this is for a regular 0/0/12/uncapped card rather than a fourth copy of the previous offer. I look forward to getting two more copies of this one

Moonbutt said:OK, the BOA cards are all zeroed, but the AM3X still shows the damned $3k balance at all three bureaus. I've seen references elsewhere to disputing reports at the CRA's; is this doable for balances? I do have the relevant bill stating a credit balance handy. That's nearly 10% of utilization right there.

so, still waiting...Just dispute it as 'incorrect balance' (or whatever the exact term is). If you wait for AMEX, you'll likely be waiting until the beginning of Dec. - AMEX runs a month behind in reporting.

Assuming Am Ex is reporting that $18k credit limit on your costco true earnings card properly, and that you've successfully got all your other credit card balances reporting at $0, I woulnd't think you would have anything to gain by disputing off the $3k balance, as it is only 16% individual utilization. You surely want to avoid having any individual account reporting a large utilization, or many accounts reporting balances, but one account reporting 16% is pretty close to optimal.

I just clicked on the BoA 12-mo 0% no BT fee offer link and it seemed to work (was able to click to view the terms and conditions as well and verified still 12 months 0% with no BT fee.)

However, if the BoA no fee card offer disappears on you or you want to know other good options, you can use BoA NEA American Express or BoA NEA Visa (either with a $30 BT fee cap) as a backup BoA BT card. (Note that the $30 BT fee cap, although not disclosed on the front page, is still disclosed in the "terms and conditions" fine print.)

Thanks for giving the BoA pre-approved page a try. Despite them coming back empty, I'll bet you do well... you've done everything right to prepare for this. Best of luck and keep us posted!

Moonbutt

Showing a few thousand on your report will give you a higher score than showing zero balances on all accounts. I've found about 5% of utilization seems to be about the best to get your highest fico possible.

I hade 5,000 show up on my report last week (I already had 5K on my report), my fico jumped 17 points.

Good Luck

As someone else noted, you can dispute the AMEX balance. Here's what might happen: the credit agencies drop it due to the dispute ... and then AMEX CONFIRMS that yes, they did report the old balance that you already paid off, and they're going to report it again. So: it comes back. Sounds unlikely, but it's true. So, you may want to do the AOR as soon as the zero balance shows up. (Or, just pull the trigger anyway; I agree that it's not a big deal.)

Moonbutt said:Now, how long does reported data take to affect the FICO scores? My FAKOS haven't budged since I first posted in September. I'm only curious about that, as I think these days they look at everything and I won't gain anything by waiting even longer for something to happen there.Scores are based solely on the reported data; whenever the data changes, the score change immediately.

Here's my tentative priority for apps:

Tentative Launch Priority:

Biznas Cards:
Citi Business W/15kTYP
Bank Atlantic Biz
Advanta Small Biz (would have to be phone app, won't work from Firefox/Ubuntu)

Personal Cards, High Priority

USBank Linux VISA
BOA Platinum Plus (by phone)
Citi Associated Bank
Juniper I Fly

Lower Priority:
Citi Driver's Edge
Chase OptionsXpress MC
Chase Disney Rewards Visa
Discover More

WAMU Real Rewards VISA (18 months 0% purchase with $100 BT)
USBank Visa Platinum 0%/12 purchases and 3.99%/60 no-fee BT.

The last two are pre-approved mail solicitations that I'm curious about -- the first because of the 18 months 0% purchase rate, and the second because I'm anticipating inflation to get well ahead of that rate within those five years. Also, no BT fees for that 60 months.

The plan is to take care of goal #1 first -- get the Chase balance parked somewhere. The business apps and the "high priority" personal apps are for that; those will go Friday morning.

After that, it's just to see what I can grab, perhaps on Monday.