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Hi FWF,

I was not originally going to post this, but I changed my mind since:
1.) I have learned a lot from you guys and all the cards in my list were found here.
2.) I have already compiled the list of cards, and future users may benefit.
3.) Someone may have some constructive feedback for me on my AOR.

I am pretty much using credit cards to my advantage as free loans rather than making money off of the offers.

HHI: $100K
Age: 24

Scores	TU	EX	EQ		
PM123 	719	715	709	
Inquiries        	TU	EX	EQ
Within 12 months	0	0	0
Within 24 months	3	3	6
Existing Accounts
Credit Card		Type				Limit 	Util	Age 
Bank of America	        Platinum Plus			$2,000 	31%	1.4
Capital One		Platinum			$750 	0%	2.1
Chase			Montecristo	 		$5,000 	0%	2
Citi			Associated Bank 	 	$6,000 	50%	1.1
Citi			AT&T Universal		        $1,000 	0%	1.1
Citi			Professional Cash		$2,500 	47%	1.1
Citi 			MTVu Platinum Select	        $4,500 	0%	1.1
Household Bank	        Platinum			$3,000 	49%	1.1
US Bank 		Rewards Platinum	 	$7,000 	49%	1.3
Wells Fargo		Platinum	 		$5,400 	0%	3.6
		 					$37,150 	26%	
I also have one student loan at $6000. Potential Applications (alphabetical order):
Issuer         Card                                           BT Fee, BT Period, Purchase Period, Bureau Pull
Advanta	        Kiva	                              Business	 $90 	15	   0	EX
AMEX	        Blue	                              Personal	 3%	12	   0
Bank of America	Hello Kitty	                      Personal	 $75 	12	   0	
Bank of America	NEA Accelerated Rewards AMEX	      Personal	 $30 	12	   0	EX
Bank of America	NEA Platinum Plus w/ Worldpoints      Personal	 $30 	12	   0	EX
Bank of America	Platinum Plus MasterCard Worldpoints  Personal	 3%	15	   0	EX
Bank of America	WorldPoint Rewards	              Business	 3%	0	   12
Capital One	Business Platinum with Cash	      Business	 3%	12	   12	EX/TU?
Chase	        Disney	                              Personal	 $75 	12	   12	TU
Citi            ADA           	                      Personal	 $0   	12	   0
Citi	        Business	                      Business	 $0   	12	   0	EQ
Citi	        Driver's Edge	                      Personal	 3%	6 or 12	   0
Citi	        Platinum Select MC	              Personal	 3%	6,9 or 12  12	EQ
Discover	More	                              Personal	 3%	12	   6	
Juniper	        Business Bank Atlantic	              Business	 $75 	15	   0	TU?
Juniper	        Farm Bureau Bank	              Personal	 $50 	12	   0
Juniper	        I Fly America Visa                    Personal	 $50 	12	   0	TU
Juniper	        Rec Rewards MC	                      Personal	 $75 	12	   12	TU, EQ, EX
State Farm	Good Neighbor Visa	              Personal	 $0   	9	   0
US Bank	        Irish Visa Platinum	              Personal	 $0   	12	   12	EQ/TU?
US_Bank	        PBR_Visa_Signature                    Personal	 $0   	12	   12	
Wachovia	Visa Platinum w/ Rewards              Personal	 $99 	12	   0
The cards that seem to be offering the highest limits / I might apply for first are: BOFA NEA Platinum Plus w/ Worldpoints BOFA Platinum Plus MasterCard Chase Disney Juniper Business Bank Atlantic Juniper I Fly America Visa Juniper Rec Rewards MasterCard US Bank Irish Visa Platinum Then I will just apply to cards with the better offers first. ** I would have loved to apply to for the Citi ADA card, but its intro APR has unfortunately been removed. ** Edit: Found link and updated table above - hope it works. The US Bank Linux card also reduced its BT offering. Questions: 1.) Am I missing any good deals? Such as $0 BT fee or 0% 12+ months purchasing. 2.) Multiple applications: Should I not apply for so many Citi / Juniper / Bank of America cards? 3.) The two BOFA NEA cards seem almost identical, is there advantage to the AMEX version? 4.) How do you make proper tables within these threads? I am guessing a 50/50 or worse outcome of declined/approved apps, but the new cards will help me so I am going to apply anyway. Hopefully someone will have some great ideas over the weekend, and I will be scouring the internet a bit more for deals that I may have missed. After my AOR, I will try to increase the credit limits of existing cards that require hard pulls. Thanks in advance for any suggestions! _____________ RESULTS (4/26): ---------------------- Thank you for all your feedback. Due to words of caution, I applied for just five accounts - 3 which were approved. I believe I could have applied for more cards, but I will probably have even better results next time with my new CLs. Here are the cards I applied for, all of which were deferred:
Bank 		Credit Card				Type 	BT 		Limit 	CLR Notes
Citi            ADA           	                      Personal	    		$11,000	---> Will probably try to CLR before BT 	
US Bank	        Irish Visa Platinum	              Personal	 $4,000*	$8,500  ---> Couldn't CLR my other US Bank card. 
Chase	        Disney	                              Personal	 $3,775  	$4,200	---> CLRed $4500 from Chase MonteCristo = $8,700
Bank of America	NEA Platinum Plus w/ Worldpoints      Personal			Denied
Juniper	        Business Bank Atlantic	              Business	  		Denied
										$23,700 
*BTed into BofA who sent me a check.

Unfortunately, my PM123 subsciption expired so I no longer have access to scores. I may try to apply for some more cards in a month or so.

Message edited by: StallionKing on 2009-04-26 23:51:35 CDT

Quick Summary is created and edited by users like you... Add FAQ's, Links and other Relevant Information by clicking the edit button in the lower right hand corner of this message.



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Questions:
1.) Am I missing any good deals? Such as $0 BT fee or 0% 12+ months purchasing
your list looks good to me - others will likely have added options to consider.

2.) Multiple applications: Should I not apply for so many Citi / Juniper / Bank of America cards?
I think 2 Citi, 1 biz + 1 personal Barclays (Juniper) and 2 BofA cards are sufficient.

3.) The two BOFA NEA cards seem almost identical, is there advantage to the AMEX version?
I'll defer to others. IMO, no difference.

4.) How do you make proper tables within these threads?
It's a bit tricky and requires some learning/effort. After learning, you may become addicted to using the code tag. In the example below, I am using parentheses around the letter 'c'. In actual practice, you need to use brackets like this > [ ] and place spaces inbetween the columns...

(c)
column1 column2 column3
IFLYCard 0% $75
(/c)

When using brackets it looks like this:

 column1    column2    column3
IFLYCard         0%        $75


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Unfortunately, I have concerns regarding how much new credit you are going to get with your utilization so high with more than one current issuer.

Selfishly, I'd like to see what happens when you do apply for more credit....

Good luck!


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Thanks for your feedback!

I'm not sure why my column (c) tags don't come out right, but it looks better now since I can use more than one space character.

I've added the US Bank PBR card to my list.

I am wondering about the order of my applications. Should I use:

  1. Bureau pull information to figure out the order
  2. Apply by order of preference
  3. Apply to cards that are harder to get first
  4. Use a mix of the above?

Is it possible to know which cards are easier or harder to get?

Message edited by: StallionKing on 2009-03-26 18:20:51 CDT
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Yeah I noticed that too, balances on 5 cards? I would think you should have 1-2 tops. How long are you planning to carry those balances? Do you have the cash to cover them?


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Unfortunately I don't have the cash to cover these balances now, and will transfer them to the new cards I receive.

These balances are the biggest thing hurting my credit score, which I have tried to maximize by having <50% utilization on all cards.


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StallionKing said:Thanks for your feedback!

I'm not sure why my column (c) tags don't come out right, but it looks better now since I can use more than one space character.

I've added the US Bank PBR card to my list.

I am wondering about the order of my applications. Should I use:
Bureau pull information to figure out the order
Apply by order of preference
Apply to cards that are harder to get first
Use a mix of the above?
Is it possible to know which cards are easier or harder to get?
I'm happy to help and provide feedback.

That said, I am more eager to do so if you do little bit more homework 1st. Thus far, I can see a total of 5 posts to the community and they appear to be questions with limited citations documenting your efforts to answer the original questions on your own.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/813911
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/900437/m13411299/#m13411...

An hypothetical example of a better post might be like this:

I have read here and here about how to close a WAMU savings account but didn't find a specific answer to a dilemma I'm having. Rather than posting in the two aforementioned threads, I am starting a new on because my question is specific to a POD (Payable On Death) account.

Here it goes:

When signing up with WAMU, I added POD with my wifes name. She is not authorized to conduct financial transactions on the account while I am living. Do I have to add her as an authorized user of the account or do I have to send in a durable powere of attorney for finances? Are WAMU requirements state specific or applicable nationwide?

Thanks in advance


A final option is to simply ask your question here in the ask anything thread

 

 

 

edit: removed numbering, line indents and bullets as they look terrible when quoting others

Message edited by: jackcrawfish on 2009-03-26 18:36:51 CDT
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StallionKing said:After my A0R, I will try to increase the credit limits of existing cards that require hard pulls.You should be aware that in this environment, your whole A0R may backfire, especially that last bit. When you request the credit line increases, and the issuers see all those new inquiries, they may end up slashing your existing lines instead.

edited to correct spelling

Message edited by: cashmonkey on 2009-03-26 19:03:58 CDT
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cashmonkey said:StallionKing said:After my A0R, I will try to increase the credit limits of existing cards that require hard pulls.You should be aware that in this environment, your whole A0R may backfire
I agree. This AOR is too ambitious IMO given his mediocre credit profile (low credit lines, relatively high utilization, etc) and the current credit environment. My husband recently applied for the Citi Forward card and got a CL that is <0.4% of his income even though he has only one large balance on his credit report (admittedly, it's from Citi). StallionKing already has balances at Citi and BofA, so I seriously doubt they are going to extend much more credit.


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5 BoA, 4 Juniper? No way -- even back in the good old days. Do some research, e.g. the CC Issuer FAQ.

To echo others: your starting balances are high for a successful AOR.

If you're desperate for credit and not limited to uncapped 0%, there are actually tons of offers from smaller banks & CUs, though it requires a bit of research beyond Fat Wallet.


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StallionKing said:I am pretty much using credit cards to my advantage as free loans rather than making money off of the offers.

OK. You spend more than you make. That's a bad habit you need to break, if possible.

StallionKing said:Unfortunately I don't have the cash to cover these balances now, and will transfer them to the new cards I receive.

These balances are the biggest thing hurting my credit score, which I have tried to maximize by having <50% utilization on all cards.

Dude, the credit bubble popped months ago.... it's way too late to AOR your way out of the hole by playing the balance transfer game. Banks are not stupid like they were last year. Your existing creditors will CLD and close your accounts when they see all those apps.

Another poster mentioned CU and small banks. That requires research because some of them are quite skittish too. Don't assume CU = easy credit.

Forget the AOR game. You need to save up and actually pay down the debt instead. Stop worrying about your FICO score so much. Your FICO isn't killing you - it's the debt itself. Opt out of rate changes and eat the account closure, because APR increases will make it harder to pay down the debt. Find a way to save more than you spend and pay down the debt.

Message edited by: jmw11 on 2009-03-26 22:38:51 CDT
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I have to agree with what other people are saying. Your utilizaton rate is high. The AOR+BT game should be deferred till you have paid down your balances. If you are having trouble doing this, then you need to analyze why. You may also want to consider taking a part-time job to help with the repayment.


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My fakos are about the same as yours with 200K in AOR money showing on my report. I would wait and pay off your balances. I know that I wouldn't apply for anything with my current score.


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In Oct 2007 my AOR had 21 cards, too. But my util was pretty low, my scores were healthier than yours, I had bigger CLs than you, etc. The AOR went OK.

But very important was the credit environment. 19 months ago, it was still fairly ripe for AOR pickings. In contrast, I saw little use in doing much more than a 7-card mini-AOR this week. (FWIW all apps were deferred.)


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I have to echo the others' comments here. I'll add that I've seen in other recent AOR threads that applying for multiple Citi Cards simultaneously seems not to work. After you do the first one, all of the other ones are declined with the reason that Citi is already processing an application.


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IMHO

Do a rolling AOR when your score reaches 740 or above and you should be sucessful.

The order of business is to roll over the balances from one card that is near expiring on promotional rate with a new card with a promotional rate. Meaning you pay down your priors and get some additional new money to increase both the time you have BT money (old promo time + new promo time) and work your way up with additional principal to safe invest/hold. Also, it keeps your inquiries down to the minimum with some rolling off after 2 years, some rolling over 6 months, etc.

IMHO, try:
1. Go for a card (or 2) that only BT to existing cards.
2. Once you know that status, go for about 2 (or 3) others cards that would BT to checking/issue check to self.

Message edited by: telflonmail on 2009-03-27 09:37:47 CDT
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I would say your scores are fairly low and you have balances on the cards.
Most of your cards are not going to be instantly approved but will be deferred. (Speaking from my AOR 5-6 months ago...My previous utilization was less then 10% and my scores were 770+.
I compiled a huge list of cards, ultimately getting rid of any card with a non capped 3%. My reasoning was that the profit from those cards would not be worth the extra effort. Profit from a card = (Interest rate recevied - Bt fee ) * (1 - your marginal tax rate.)
I wasn't willing to keep track of 2 rewards accounts with all of the purchases and felt that my chance at an error would have been too great.
Didn't do anything with AMEX. I wasn't willing to take a miles card, and didn't find a good bt card. Good luck with them. They seem to be agressively CLD everyone.
Juniper was bad to me. I had an Emigrant Direct card for a good 4 years before. Then approved me for an Ifly card with a limit of 2.5K and refused to consolidate with the Emigrant card. The BT fee on the I fly card wouldn't have been worth it, so I didn't use it, Juniper closed the card without telling me, and only two weeks later did I receive a letter. Glad I didn't use it in that time.
Us Bank denied my Linux card app.
Citi and Boa were good to me but BoA took my existing credit line and moved it to the new card so I could open it. (Citi also reversed a late fee for me)
State farm was decent. ( And also had no problem reversing a late fee)

My question is, what will you do with the money you get?
Capped BT fees really shine when you get a large CL, which you may not because of your low CS and higher balances.


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StallionKing - at this point you need to BUILD credit, not use it. your scores arent going to get you great limits. HOWEVER, i would definitely apply for SOMETHING, if for no other reason than to decrease your overall util%, because it is high. if i was in your spot, i would absolutely wait until i got my util below 10%, which should help your score, then apply.

if you insist on AORing, i would recommend about 5 apps max, and i wouldnt bother with any Biz cards, as they dont show on your CRAs (except Discover) and you need them to...also, you dont appear to care about interest rate arbitrage, so making money off them isnt a priority. I dont think you will get the AM3X Blue card. Anyway, i recommend these:

BofA NEA (mainly because the $30 BT cap is permanent)
USBank Linux/Irish
Chase Disney
Juniper Ifly
Citi...one of the two. sorry you missed the ADA card.

that'll be 3 TU pulls and 2 EQ or EX.


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solarUS said:StallionKing - at this point you need to BUILD credit, not use it. your scores arent going to get you great limits. HOWEVER, i would definitely apply for SOMETHING, if for no other reason than to decrease your overall util%, because it is high. if i was in your spot, i would absolutely wait until i got my util below 10%, which should help your score, then apply.

if you insist on AORing, i would recommend about 5 apps max, and i wouldnt bother with any Biz cards, as they dont show on your CRAs (except Discover) and you need them to...also, you dont appear to care about interest rate arbitrage, so making money off them isnt a priority. I dont think you will get the AM3X Blue card. Anyway, i recommend these:

BofA NEA (mainly because the $30 BT cap is permanent)
USBank Linux/Irish
Chase Disney
Juniper Ifly
Citi...one of the two. sorry you missed the ADA card.

that'll be 3 TU pulls and 2 EQ or EX.
I agree. It's now dated, but I did something similar a year ago here.


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