GreyRabbit AOR 1

Hi.

This is my attempt at my first AOR, so I am very much open to suggestion and criticism.

FAKO scores 750-780
Credit limits:

Bank of America (All except WA & ID) - Credit Card - BankAmericard Rewards $22,000.00 4 year old
Citibank Credit Cards - CitiDiaPref $14,500.00 4 month old.
Discover Card - Discover $4,800.00 4 month old.
Washington Mutual Credit Card(Formerly Providian) - WaMu Visa $13,500.00 4.5 year old
Emigrant Direct (Juniper) Cash Back No preset spending limit. (CL used to be around 12k?) 2 year old
Chase card (never used) $1000 1 year old

Credit Cards to consider. Combination of Aquone's AOR and RhizzleBop's AOR. Primary goal is to get 0% BT money & secondary is bonuses.

BANK: CC NAME: BT FEE Months for BT Referal/Bonus

Business:

Advanta Advanta Kiva Business 90 cap 15 CardSelect $50
Advanta Advanta Plat Biz Card with Unlimited 90 Cap 15
Chase Chase Business Rebate Visa 3% 15
CitiBank CitiBusiness® CardTYP 0 12 15K TYP after 1st purchase
CitiBank CitiBiz Aa - - 25k AA miles after 750 purch in 4 month.
Juniper BankAtlantic Rewards BusinessCar 75 cap 15

Personal:

Boa BoA Platinum 0 12
BOA BOA NEA 30 Max 2% 12
Chase Chase Platinum MC 3% 12 CardSelect $30
CitiBank Citi Professional Card 0 12 15K TYP after 1st purchase
CitiBank Citibank Associated 0 12
CitiBank Citi AAdvantage MC - - - 25k AA miles after 750 purch in 4 month.
Juniper Juniper National Parks 50 Max 12 Free Gift?
USBank US Bank Linux Visa 0 12 (Card Type not chosen yet.)

1)My HHI is 50, but for my mother is also registered in the appartment that I live in. If I add her income, I'd be up to about 120K. Will CC companies request proof of income for the amount of 120k? Does the benefit of showing 120HHI outweigh any potential delays do to income verification?

2)Does the time of day that I do the AOR matter? Should I try to do it all as early in the morning as possible?

3)Are there any good bonus or BT cards that I am missing?

4)Is there a decent AMEX card to get?

5)The Advanta Kiva & Advanta Platinum seem to have the same terms, should I just choose one, and if so, which one do you recommend?

6)Do I have too strong a focus on any bank (Perhaps Citibank) What should I cut?

7)I verified the terms of the CCS to make sure that they are not changed (as of 2:00 Tuesday)

8)Sorry, this is a bit of a novice question (Yes, I have been reading the AOR posts and FAQ) but are any of the above cards against direct deposit to a checking acc?

9)When I do the AOR, besides saving the terms for each card, is there anything else that I should do? I already have Yodlee set, and will put in automatic payments.

10)If cards refuse to DD to a checking account, what are my options?

11)Has anyone had success getting the CSRs to cap the BT fees? Also, is applying online or over the phone better?

12)Is there anything that I have completely missed? Please point out anything, as I said, this is my first AOR attempt and I am fairly new to the AOR game.

13)I will attempt to maximize the bonuses from Cardselect.com, or cardoffer.com when applying.

-Thank you for your help ahead of time

GreyRabbit

10)If cards refuse to DD to a checking account, what are my options?

That's the big question. It used to be that you could launder them through Citi, since Citi provided BT checks on demand. However, I think that attempt is what resulted in Citi closing all my cards recently. I requested a BT check from Citi, then immediately initiated another BT from USBank to Citi with the intention of requesting a third check from Citi once the balance was paid off. Instead, Citi closed all my accounts.

Chase and Barclays LLBean cards came with checks. BoA deposited directly to checking. I am fortunate that I have a Visa from my credit union (USE) which integrates nicely with my checking account; BTs from Discover and BankAtlantic to the Visa (which had no balance) were deposited to my checking account, although USE did put two-week hold on the funds.

Advanta Kiva gave me a lousy $2000 line, as did AMEX Blue. AMEX will no longer reallocate, so unless you plan to use the AMEX card for purchases, it isn't of much use. I'd say don't bother applying for more than one Advanta card, and if you've had one recently, don't bother at all.

Five Citi Cards is probably guaranteed to result in Adverse Action; the reason they cited for closing my accounts was too many recent inquiries on Experian.

1)My HHI is 50, but for my mother is also registered in the appartment that I live in. If I add her income, I'd be up to about 120K. Will CC companies request proof of income for the amount of 120k? Does the benefit of showing 120HHI outweigh any potential delays do to income verification?

I've never been asked to verify income, although other AOR threads indicate that business cards sometimes do ask.

Good luck.

If you want good results (approvals and high credit limits), I would wait until your newest accounts are at least 6 months old, or more ideally 12 months old, before doing any new applications.

a) Check Chase terms, the fees probably have no cap, making them unappealing for BTs.
b) Only one Advanta card
c) If your mom lives with you, then 120k would be a reasonable HHI. If not, it's dodgier. In either situation though, if the credit card company decides to throw a fit, they're probably only going to care about the income of you and your spouse. However, HHI of 120k will yield better results than 50k.
d) time of day doesn't really matter.
e) BofA can usually ach to a checking account. Chase usually includes a check. Citibank usually lets you request a check. With the others you have to be creative, look at the giant thread.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/522179

f) How many inquiries are on your credit reports? The new cards with discover and Citibank might ding you. The new citibank card might specifically hurt your odds of getting more personal citibank cards.

New cards to consider:

Type Bank Name BT fee 0 apr months

Personal Chase Disney Rewards Visa 3% max 75 12
Personal State Farm State Farm Good Neighbor 0 within 90 days 9

New card to consider (from Pana's AOR):
Personal USBANK Visa® Platinum Card 0 12

I'm not sure if this will conflict with the USBank Linux Visa 0 12 card....

I am going to cut the 3% uncapped cards, which means that I don't have a good Chase card nor an AMEX card... I can't seem to find anything decent out there.

Update: Checked Transunion credit score =749 and 3 inquiries

I'm currently trying to figure out the optimum strategy of getting the Balance transfer money, as some banks won't deposit to checking.

Is it better to apply for the BT right during the application and list a large amount to transfer? Will a large BT (30K+)scare any companies? Or is it better to wait until I am approved and then process the BT?

Still looking for more suggestions and comments! Tentative launch date is either 11/6 or 11/7.

Updated list:

Order of Application Type Bank Name BT FEE Months Referal? Bonus?
1 Business CitiBank CitiBusiness® CardTYP 0 12 15K TYP after 1st purchase
2 Personal Boa BoA Platinum 0 12
3 Personal CitiBank Citi Professional Card 0 12 15K TYP after 1st purchase
4 Personal CitiBank Citibank Associated 0 12
5 Personal USBank US Bank Linux Visa 0 12 Choose which cARD??
6 Business Advanta Advanta Kiva Business 90 cap 15 CardSelect $50
7 Personal BOA BOA NEA 30 Max 2% 12
8 Personal Juniper Juniper National Parks 50 Max 12 Free Gift?
9 Business Juniper BankAtlantic Rewards BusinessCard 75 cap 15
10 Personal Chase Disney Rewards Visa 3% max 75 12
11 Personal State Farm State Farm Good Neighbor 0 within 90 days 9
12 Personal USBANK Visa® Platinum Card 0 12

I decided to cut both Citi miles cards (personal & business) because I was afraid of having too many citi applications. Now have 3 instead of 5. Does anyone agree or disagree with this?

Does anyone have any comments on my application order?

Should I replace the Citi Associated with a different citi card which will also reward me with more TYP?

Thank you for your replies and suggestions.

-Greyrabbit

There is a similar AOR post by Pana here: Pana's AOR.

I'm trying to shoot ideas back and forth with him.
Still trying to find new cards and finalize the selection. Aiming for 11-6 or 11-7 for launch date.

-Greyrabbit

Thanks Downhillskier, will add that card to the list.

So my main concern remaining is how to get the BT money. The banks that DD or give checks won't be a problem. For the rest, I'm going to try transfer the balance to a debit card...
My debit cards are : Wamu, Chase, Citibank. (I've looked at http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/522179) does anyone have any recent experience with how each of those banks will react to a large credit to the debit card...
Am I overlooking a simpler way to get the BT cash?

"or let you request a BT to virtually anyone you claim to owe money to (I'd just make sure its to someone/someplace with a different last name and different address than yourself)."

Like have them deposit it to a friend's account?

Unfortunatly, I don't have anyone with a different last name, who has a bank account to whom I would trust a transfer of like 10k+

Can you clarify a bit of those of us who are a bit dense (me)

Thank you.

New cards to consider:

https://www.53business.com/ 12 months 0 apr 0 bt.

Has anyone had any success with this one?

there are 5/3 banks where i live (ohio)...

does anyone know what kind of lines they give?

panasonictech said: there are 5/3 banks where i live (ohio)...

does anyone know what kind of lines they give?

Size you mean? I got 6,5K with scores 720-740 ~2 years ago
Beware, now the terms include "if we don't like you, we will forward your application to HSBC" and those pull all 3 CRB and give you $350 limit. Not worth it for me..

Also, my CC account with them has b'n converted to BoA CC ~6mth ago.

Update:

Froze experian report.

I updated the summary. I am thinking of doing the same thing for my parents.

TrueCredit credit score as of 12/9 = 761