James Hasty AOR 4.0

James Hasty's AOR 4.0

Application Results

Round One - Saturday, September 26th

1. PFCU - Visa Platinum CashBack Rewards ($50,000 credit line applied for online) - rejected will apply for a new card with a limit of $5,000 after I complete my balance transfers.

2a. BOA - Schwab Bank Invest First Visa Credit Card (applied online) - approved - $5,000
2b. BOA - NEA WorldPoints® Platinum Plus® AMEX® Card (applied by phone name might not be exact) - approved - $5,000 now $25,000 (moved line from other card)
existing BOA NEA WorldPoints Platinum Plus Card (VISA) cut from $44,600 to $20,000; moved to AMEX card, now this card is closed

3a. Barclay's - Bank Atlantic Rewards Business Card (applied online) - called to follow up 10/5, approved for $25,000 - 0% through 11/26/10
3b. Barclay's Coast to Coast Visa Signature Card - Online instant approval $7,500 - 0% through 09/10/10

4a.5th Third Bank - Insurbank Business Visa (requested $30,000 limit online) - pending, I have sent my tax returns for the last two years, they are waiting for confirmation from the IRS that the information I sent to them matches the IRS records
4b. 5th Third Bank - Responsible Credit Card - Call (877) 579-5353 to apply during weekday business hours
4c. 5th Third Bank - 5th 3rd 1st Southwest bank (applied online) - approved $9,500 limit

5a. Chase - Disney Rewards (online application) - approved - $6,000 now $36,877
5b. Chase - Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (online application) - approved - $7,000 now $4,000
Moved inactive card balances (and closed the accounts) and $3,000 from Chase Sapphire Card to Disney Card

6a. National City - Nat City Lifespring Health (applied online) - approved $10,000 - account closed
6b. National City - Nat City Quilter's Rewards (online application) - approved $5,000 - acount closed

7a. Citi - Citi ProfessionalSM Card (online application completed) - approved $1,800 (seriously WTF?)
7b. Citi - Citi Forward Card (online application) - approved $4,800
7c. Citi - Associated Bank Rewards Credit Card (automated telephone application - time consuming and tedious) - rejected, "too many applications with Citi"

Round Two - Saturday, October 3rd

8. Wachovia / Wells Fargo - Wachovia Visa Business Platinum [rate increased from 0% to 1.99% with max $99 fee on 12 month BT offer; personal cards no longer have attractive terms](applied at bank branch) - rejected, not sure why - I was told to call the underwriting department at (866) 420-7940 during business hours
9. Capitol One - No Hassle MilesSM Ultra for Professionals (online application) - declined, no point following up further as the decision is computer driven
10. AMEX - hilton HHonors® Card from American Express (online application) - declined, called 10/6 they will take 5-7 days to reconsider the application

Round Three - ???

11. Bank of Kentucky - Visa® Credit Cards from The Bank of Kentucky - I submitted a request to be contacted by a representative with instructions on how to apply for the card.
12. US Bank
13. RBS
14. HSBC
15. Discover
16. State Farm

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Key Links

0% Thread
5% Rewards Thread
What credit card should I get?
SIS Apporama
My second AOR rolling
US Elan
Credit Cards that allow your to shift credit lines
A summary of techniques for receiving BT money into your checking
Credit Card Signup bonuses 1 of 2
Credit Card Signup Bonuses 2 of 2
BT Credit Cards

High Yield Checking by State
Rewards Checking FW Thread
Daughter of the Mother of liquid accounts thread
Best Nationally Available High APY Liquid Accounts

Credit / Debit Cards with low foreign trnsaction fees
FW CC Foreign transaction fee thread

Credit Card Application Status Thread

Background

I plan to launch my AOR 4.0 by Saturday, 9/27/09.

I am a Jets fan, my real name is not James Hasty.

My AOR 3.0 started in August of 2007 and paid off by November of 2008. I raised a total of approximately $250,000 last time.

I utilized 100% of my credit limits with no adverse action from any company apart from Chase and Barclays. Chase reduced five of my credit lines by $50,923 to $22,077 (initially the lines totaled $73,000). To add insult to injury, they cut my rewards card that I use for purchases from $2,500 to $1,200.

Inactivity also resulted in some card closures and CLI reductions several months after the cards were all paid off.

Also, if anyone can tell me how to arrange columns (on chart(s) below I wuold be greatful.

Goals (in order of priority)

1. Maximize low APR balance transfers (target is $120K)
2. Maximize low APR purchases
3. Upfront rewards for first purchase(s) - cash, airline tickets, etc.
4. Rewards card with highest Cash Back for general purchases
5. Rewards cards for highest Cash Back for specific categories (Gas, Groceries, etc.)
6. Card (s) with low foreign transaction fees (hopefully none)

Existing Credit Lines - Summary Below, details attached

			                                                     Initial	 Adverse	Current
Type	Sponsor	             Card Name	                                      Limit	 Action	        Limit
					
P	AMEX	             Blue from American Express	®	             2,000.00 	      0.00      2,000.00
P	BOA	             BOA NEA Worldpoints Platinum Plus Visa	    44,600.00  	      0.00     44,600.00 
P	Chase	             Chase Freedom Card	                             2,500.00    (1,300.00)     1,200.00 
P	Chase	             Washington Mutual Platinum MasterCard®.	     3,000.00 	   (236.00)	2,764.00 
P	Chase	             Washington Mutual Visa Card	             8,500.00 	   (687.00)	7,813.00 
P	Chevy Chase Bank     Small Business Credit Card	                    11,000.00 	 (1,200.00)	9,800.00 
P	Citi		                                                     1,000.00 	    500.00 	1,500.00 
P	Discover	     Discover Open Road Card	                    22,500.00         0.00     22,500.00 
P	Discover	     Discover Miles Card	                     2,500.00         0.00 	2,500.00 
P	General Electric     GE Money Platinum Visa	                     4,000.00    (3,500.00)	  500.00 
P	HSBC	             HSBC - The GM Flex Card	                     3,500.00 	 (3,200.00)	  300.00 
P	LaSalle Bank         The LaSalle Bank Platinum MC	            11,000.00 	 (1,200.00)	9,800.00 
					
Personal Card Subtotals			                                   116,100.00 	(10,823.00)   105,277.00 
					
B	Chase	             "GM Business Card"	                            48,000.00 	(47,500.00)	  500.00 
B	Citi	             CitiBusiness Card	                            37,500.00 	      0.00     37,500.00 
B	Discover	     Discover® Business Card	                     8,000.00      (700.00)     7,300.00 
					
Business Card Subtotals			                                    93,500.00 	(48,200.00)    45,300.00 
					
O	Kohl's/Chase	     Kohl's Card	                             1,000.00 	      0.00 	1,000.00 
O	Macy's	             Macy's card	                               500.00 	      0.00 	  500.00 
O	Sears	             Sears Card	                                    14,000.00 	      0.00 	14,000.00 
					
Other Card Subtotals			                                    15,500.00 	      0.00 	15,500.00 
					
Total			                                                   225,100.00 	(59,023.00)    166,077.00 

Thanks again for the great feedback! (keep it coming)

Before you continue... I would highly recommend you change your user name and name of this thread. You are going to be posting a lot of financial information and all of it will show up on a Google search.

unless hie is This Guy I think he's safe

I think Discover gave me trouble when I applied for two of the same exact card.

I wasn't sure what to expect from BOA since the NEA card has vastly superior terms to all other BOA cards that I could find.

Post the list of apps you're considering to receive input.

One other question for now.

If I remember correctly, online applications take less time to complete than telephone applications. Is there any advantage (time to obtain credit line, amount of credit line, probability of approval)to applying for a credit card by phone?

Conversely, would an internet application have any of these advantages over a telephone application?

Thanks again.

solarUS said: jameshasty said: One other question for now.

If I remember correctly, online applications take less time to complete than telephone applications. Is there any advantage (time to obtain credit line, amount of credit line, probability of approval)to applying for a credit card by phone?

Conversely, would an internet application have any of these advantages over a telephone application?

Thanks again.
if you're fast, you can rattle off all your internet apps before the first inquiry posts, effectively removing that possible complication. if you perform bureau utilization and the next-day TU dropoff technique, you can further avoid the potential for INQ denials.

Thats easy, just have multiple tabs open....

I made many changes to the original post, more to follow.

I have done this before so finding the best cards to meet my goals is where I could use the mosr help.

Also, any information about company sepecific strategies (how many of their cards to apply for, will they transfer crdit lines?, possible adverse action, high or low credit lines, etc.) would be very helpul.

Thanks again.

Thaks for the info.

I did a web search for Bank Atlantic and only found 0% APR for 6 months with a maximum fee of $99.

Do you have a link for a better offer for their card?

Thanks again.

Don't sweat the $24, 13 months at 0% is hard to come by these days.

Boy do I miss Advanta.

As you might tell, this AOR is going to be a bit rushed. Unfortunately, the list of cards I posted so far was only a rough draft.

After the next big revision to the original post in the next hour or two (where I will try to include the best cards from the 0% thread in your last post)I could really use a lot of help from anyone who can point out any good cards that I overlooked.

Thanks again.

PS, the 0% thread does not have any cards from the following institutions that may or may not have 0% BT offers:

Discover
AMEX
Chevy Chase / First USA - may have been bought by Chase
First National Bank of Omaha
Capitol One

Any offers from these banks that beat the ones in my original post would be appreciated.

My plan is to wait about 2-3 weeks until I get all of the cards to do my CLI-o-rama in one day. That strategy helped me get a lot of approvals last time.

Also, the 0% thread in the link has columns, can anyone tell me how they did that so I can fix the formatting in the original post.

Thanks.

You are absolutely right about discover, their BT fee is 5% for 12 months, 3% for 6 months. I was just hoping that one of my FW brothers knew about some secret co-branded card that the rest of us forgot about.

Thanks again everyone!

I merged my BT credit card list with the 0% thread (including links to all applications).

The Excel file with all 49 cards is attached to the original post.

I confirmed that five of the dead cards on the 0% thread are truly dead.

If anyone can provide further updates on any of these cards it will save me some time.

Given the rushed nature of this AOR and the amount of details left to research, I will probably set up all of the applications on the internet on Sunday and launch them before work Monday morning.

After I finish reviewing and updating the terms of the BT cards, I still have to go through the rewards cards.

If anyone has any information on credit cards that do not charge a foreign currency / international purchase fee I would be greatful.

Thanks again.

Saturday afternoon should work.

I would not recommend so many applications.

I would recommend 3-4 strategically chosen application. Try banks / companie that:

- either will grant large lines from the getgo, or
- that will reallocate from other large lines.

You dont want to end up with 20 $5K lines. You should aim to end up with 3-4 $20-$50 K lines, reallocatable, or initially large, and just take 55-75% from those lines.

jameshasty said: I have done this before so finding the best cards to meet my goals is where I could use the mosr help.

not trying to be a PITA, but how is that you've done this before but werent sure if doing phone apps was better?? were your previous 3 AORs much smaller in scale?

P AMX Blue from Amrican Express(r)               2,000.00         0.00     2,000.00
P BOA BOA NEA Worldpoints Platinum Plus Visa    44,600.00         0.00    44,600.00
P Chase Chase Freedom Card                       2,500.00    (1,300.00)    1,200.00
P Chase Washington Mutual Platinum MasterCard®.  3,000.00      (236.00)    2,764.00
P Chase Washington Mutual Visa Card              8,500.00      (687.00)    7,813.00
P Chevy Chase Bank Small Business Credit Card   11,000.00    (1,200.00)    9,800.00
P Citi                                           1,000.00       500.00     1,500.00
P Discover Discover Open Road Card              22,500.00         0.00    22,500.00
P Discover Discover Miles Card                   2,500.00         0.00     2,500.00
P General Electric GE Money Platinum Visa        4,000.00    (3,500.00)      500.00
P HSBC HSBC - The GM Flex Card                   3,500.00    (3,200.00)      300.00
P LaSalle Bank The LaSalle Bank Platinum MC     11,000.00    (1,200.00)    9,800.00
Personal Car Subtotals                         116,100.00   (10,823.00)  105,277.00
B Chase "GM Business Card"                      48,000.00   (47,500.00)      500.00
B Citi CitiBusiness Card                        37,500.00         0.00    37,500.00
B Discover Discover® Business Card               8,000.00      (700.00)    7,300.00
Business Card Subtotals                         93,500.00   (48,200.00)   45,300.00
O Kohl's/Chase Kohl's Card                       1,000.00         0.00     1,000.00
O Macy's Macy's card                               500.00         0.00       500.00
O Sears Sears Card                              14,000.00         0.00    14,000.00
Other Card Subtotals                            15,500.00         0.00    15,500.00
Total                                          225,100.00   (59,023.00)  166,077.00

For AOR 2.0 I lowered my utilization from 100% to under 10% ($2-3k of remaining debt) for a full month before launch. I raised $50-60k on 6 cards (one for each major issuer - Citi, Discover, BOA, Chase, etc.)

For AOR 3.0 I paid off all of my debt with the exception of my card used for monthly purchases (I made payments to keep the debt below $500). Once the debt was paid off I waited 60 days to launch. After the first round of applications (38 apps on one Saturday) I waited 2-3 weeks to get the cards before requesting CLIs on all new and existing cards the following weekend. I then waited 2 weeks for all of the CLI approvals before consolidating all multiple lines from one company. I deposited the BT checks (or requesting BTs from those that wouldn't give BT checks)the following day for 100% utilization.

Citi gave me instant approval on a business card for $20-33k (I forget initial amount). This card was used to get funds from all cards that wouldn't allow BT directly to bank account (card had $0 fee 0%).

My local bank then put a 6 business day hold on the funds before I could transfer them to interest bearing accounts.

After I deposited all of the checks, I found 8 additional cards on fatwallet that I missed. I applied for all 8 and was accepted for 6 of them. I called to request CLI increases from the parking lot of the bank before depositing the BT checks for each of these accounts.

I paid off all of my cards over nine months ago (except for the monthly purchase card)and will try a similar approach as AOR 3.0 this time.

...

...

It's been quite a while since I've visited the good ole FWF, and I was checking in on BT offers. My current AOR is up the end of Dec, and I was hoping to execute another in Feb. Much to my dismay, I filter for AOR, only to find just FOUR threads?! One of which is about ARMs (which looks oddly familiar...). Are there no active threads detailing current offers?! This...is...devastating.

jameshasty, holding off for a couple months? How uncharacteristic of you to not rush into things... When you do plan for the next, could you start it on a fresh thread please?