This is my first AOR and I just might make it a country-style AOR. By that I mean no Citi apps. Read below to see why.

UPDATE 10-19: Never mind about skipping Citi...see Quick Summary.

Anyway, I hope I can contribute at least a few good data points to the FWF community. Thanks to such AOR folks as DjPiLL (I borrowed heavily!), markkundinger, lhendricks92, miker397, thisguy, venturion, markber, maddhatter, SIS, DaveHanson and too many more folks to mention…

If you’re tired of reading AOR threads, go ahead and suggest something that maybe I can do or contribute to make this AOR interesting for you.

Profile
Name – bogalusa

Age -- AARP class

Residence -- The Bay State, not The Bayou State

HHI -- 108k

Credit Age -- Old – first cards: Dept Store 25+ years, AMEX 20+. Currently have 6 young cards and 2 old ones (see list).
Credit History -- Flawless for 20 years

Job -- Same employer for 20 years
Home -- Same residence for 15 years

Assets -- Home, market value $400k
Liability 1 -- 15-year fixed, rate sub-5%, 12 years to go, PITI under $1,400, bal. $115k
Liability 2 -- $30k HELOC, bal. $19k (reporting), $23k (as of Nov. 1)

Credit Utilization -- With HELOC, 26%; credit cards only, 9% (see cards below)

FAKOs (using TrueCredit)
6/15 Tu 763 Ex 709 Eq 692
8/15 Tu 760 Ex 734 Eq 738
10/22 Tu 782 Ex 740 Eq 777

Inquiries (cable and mtge inqs excluded)
Pre-b*: TU 3 / EX 5 / EQ 3 (B* began in June)
Current: TU 0 / EX 3 / EQ 1 (EX: 3 Citi, 2006; EQ: 1 AMEX, mid-2006)

Goals
1- Avoid serious missteps in AOR execution
2- Become a decent AOR practitioner
3- For AOR1, get 10-20 new cards (some business) with many different lenders having 0% BT offers, including 2 or more “bankable” cards
4- Invest 0% BTs wisely in short-term CDs, HYS and MMA
5- Lather, rinse, repeat; i.e., set the stage for subsequent AORs, in which I invest 0% BTs in same places (and possibly elsewhere) to increase wealth

Current Cards

Issuer /Desc/Age / Balance / CL / Util
AMEX / Blue / 1 / 60 / 18,000 / 0%
BofA / MC / 3 / 250 / 10,000 / 3%
CapOne /Visa/ 11 / 495 / 5,000 / 10%
Citi /AT&TVisa / 2 / 144 / 17,000 / 1%
Citi–AMEX /Div/ 1 / 0 / 3,600 / 0%
Citi / MC / 3 / 0 / 1,040 / 0%
Discover/More/ 0.5 / 4,983 / 10,500 / 47%
Sears (AU) / / 31 / 766 / 7,140 / 11%
Totals / 6,698 / 72,280 / 9%

AOR Preparation
March -- FICO 718
May – Closed AT&T2, reallocated its 7k to AT&T1, CL now 17k
May – Applied for new Discover cards (each 0%, 12 mos., $75 BT fee) for DW and me. Got CLs of $8k (instant approval, no BT request) and $10.5k (48-hr. approval, requested 9.5k BT at time of app), respectively. BTs from Citi AT&T1 and HELOC, $6k and $9.5k, resp.
June – TrueCredit monitoring @ $11.21 per month
July – BofA CLI fm 5k to 10k; AMEX Blue CLI fm 5k to 12k
Aug – Saw the effects of taking Citi’s CL buyback program – pitiful CL now, but at least we “cashed it in”
Aug – AMEX Blue CLI fm 12k to 18k

Cards under consideration

BUSINESS

Advanta Business Rewards
0% BT, 15 mos., $50 BT FEE $25 CS

BofA Business Power Rewards
0% BT, 9 mos., NO BT FEE
"No fees for BTs" on promo page (not T&C)! ???

BankAtlantic Rewards BusinessCard
0% BT, 15 mos., $75 BT FEE

Chase Amazon.com Business Visa
0% BT, 6 mos., $75 BT FEE

Chase Professional
0% BT, 6 mos., $75 BT FEE

Citi Business MC
0% BT, 12 mos., NO BT FEE
$150 gift card after first purchase (use "before you go" trick) --- BT at time of app

Citi Professional
0% BT, 12 mos., $50 BT FEE --- do the trick

Discover Business
0% BT, 12 mos., $75 BT FEE --- $40 thru cardselection

PERSONAL

BofA Platinum Plus Visa
0% BT, 12 mos, NO BT FEE

Chase AARP Rewards Platinum Visa
0% BT, 6mos., $75 BT FEE --- UTIL

Chase Freedom MC
12 mo 0% $75 max BT offer

Chase Sony
0% BT, 12 mos, $75 BT FEE --- $100 card credit after 1st purchase

Citi Drivers Edge
0% BT, 12 mos, NO BT FEE, bankable --- $25 CS

Discover Open Road
0% BT, 12 mos., $75 BT FEE

GE Money Platinum MasterCard
0% $75 BT fee – bankable!

Juniper National Parks
0% BT, 12 mos., $50 BT FEE

National City Lifespring Health
0% BT, 12 mos, NO BT FEE --- Do BT w app!!!

PenFed Rewards Visa (5% gas, 1.25% all else Cash.Back) ---SPENDER / UTIL

Principal
0% BT, 12 mos., $75 BT FEE

UnionPlus --- UTIL

WaMu
0% BT, 12 mos., $75 BT FEE

Fidelity 529 College Rewards American Express
1.5% toward 529 plan

I plan to open a Fidelity MMA and apply for the Fido Visa card at the same time.

Other Comments
I am trying to emphasize business cards here, but I wound up with a pretty short list, having rejected many for one reason or another. Same is true to a lesser extent for personal cards. I am shooting for 100k BT funds, more or less.

QUESTIONS—

BTs – Taking the conservative approach, I plan not to request BTs at the time of app on most cards. I know that for some cards, I may get higher CLs by requesting a large BT, but I don’t want to get into much trouble with credit balances. With this approach, am I selling myself short on this AOR?

Proof of Apps, Proof of Terms and Conditions – As I apply for each card, I plan to save each web page of the app process (including Terms and Conditions) to one or more PDF files. Should I consider using something other than PDF-creation software, maybe SnagIt (screen-capture software)?

Offers/Links – Since I’ve been collecting app links for a while, I’m a little concerned about expired offers and expired links. Maybe this is a non-issue but, when applying for a given card, if the screen says that the app has been processed or that I’ve been approved, is there still a chance that they’ll withdraw the processing or approval due to an expired offer or expired link?

Variety of Issuers – I have noticed that many good BT offers cited by recent AOR folks originate from issuers who don’t serve residents of MA. This is one reson I have tried to follow markkundinger’s excellent suggestion to take a shot a cards issued by relatively unknown, local lenders. For example, I could try Citizens Bank (part of RBS), but since they have no decent BT offers, I would be using such cards simply for purposes of utilization. I think I have enough of that currently with PenFed and UnionPlus – what do you think?

Idea on Credit Pulls – This idea comes from markkundinger (who considered it anal-retentive). Anyway, as mentioned, my inquiries now are as follows: TU 0 EX 3 EQ 1. If I have time, I will shoot for another data point by placing the emphasis of this AOR on cards from lenders whom I expect (or somewhat expect) to pull TU and EQ, based on my review of the recent entries under MA in the CB credit pulls database. Maybe I can do an “EX AOR” in 9 months when all inqs are gone. Thoughts on this?

Country-Style AOR? – I am considering making this a “country-style” AOR; i.e., no Citi apps. My reasons:
1) I’m pretty curious about what would happen, and I really do want to give FWFers some decent data points – this could be an opportunity for some;
2) Citi knows I have already taken advantage of 4 or 5 0% BT offers, and may be getting tired of giving me any more;
3) In this AOR, I may have plenty of apps and approvals with other lenders and won’t need Citi;
4) I already have 3 Citi cards, so I wouldn’t gain anything in terms of diversifying lenders;
5) I am spending plenty of time as it is on this AOR and really don’t want to spend any time nursing any adverse action w/ Citi in particular;
6) I’d like to see whether Citi ends up sending me any nice 0% BT offers within, say, a year of the AOR;
7) I prefer that my EX inquiries come from the AOR-targeted lenders with whom I have no cards;
8) I may be on Citi’s s**t list anyway, since I had enrolled in their Payment Partner Program which a) paid us $550 (the max) and b) cut our CL fm 9k to 1k. The offers they send me now are the absolute pits, and I want to see whether that will change!

Maybe reason 8) is actually a reason for me to go for 1 personal and 1 biz card. Thoughts?

Edited 10-15, 10-19, 10-22 for broken links and minor stuff

Advanta has a 16-month offer on CS as well.

Citi Biz and Prof (and Business PremierPass) have 15k Thankyou Points offers. See here for links. Those are also all no-fee, and the BT can be delayed up to 12 months.

Chase has some business cards on CS with 12-month offers, and $30/each to boot. Seems they would be better than your current Chase business selections.

If you are using CS anyways, add a couple AMEX business cards - easy $60/each, although BT offers are rather weak (0% on purchases though - use google checkout before the end of the year to run the balance up?).

EDIT - Oh yeah, and what could possibly happen as a result of excluding Citi apps, besides not getting approved for any new Citi cards? Not being sarcastic, but I fail to see any useful info that may come from doing that. True, you may not be able to reallocate your existing $17k limit to a new promo-rate card, but the business apps will still be useful to you.

you should get some citi cards because they are so easy to launder $ through.

bogalusa said:Country-Style AOR? – I am considering making this a “country-style” AOR; i.e., no Citi apps. My reasons:
1) I’m pretty curious about what would happen, and I really do want to give FWFers some decent data points – this could be an opportunity for some;
2) Citi knows I have already taken advantage of 4 or 5 0% BT offers, and may be getting tired of giving me any more;
3) In this AOR, I may have plenty of apps and approvals with other lenders and won’t need Citi;
4) I already have 3 Citi cards, so I wouldn’t gain anything in terms of diversifying lenders;
5) I am spending plenty of time as it is on this AOR and really don’t want to spend any time nursing any adverse action w/ Citi in particular;
6) I’d like to see whether Citi ends up sending me any nice 0% BT offers within, say, a year of the AOR;
8) I may be on Citi’s s**t list anyway, since I had enrolled in their Payment Partner Program which a) paid us $550 (the max) and b) cut our CL fm 9k to 1k. The offers they send me now are the absolute pits, and I want to see whether that will change!

I don't think you should worry about citi
I got 550 from their payment partner program 2-3 month ago.
And during recent AOR(about 1 month ago) applied and got approved for: AT&T(6000thank you + 0% for 12 month no fee), Businesss PP(15000+0% for 12), Personal PP Elite(15000+0% for 12), Citi business(15000 thank you + 0% for 12)
No averse action, just got checks from city payable to myself.

Why wait for offers on existing accounts, just apply and get them

as for AMEX, at least get the following:
AMEX Gold Business (60 from cardselection + 25000pts), AMEX Starwood Business($60 form CS + 10000pts), starwood personal(30 from CS + 10000pts)
If you want to do 0% BT for 6 month get IN XYZ(NYC/LA/Chico) card from AMEX as well, but watch out for FR(i.e. don't request big CLIs and don't utilize more than 50% of CL)

As far as your points

1. BT's at app time. I really have not seen any evidence that the this practice has resulted in higher amounts. On the contrary I have seen adverse action on limits and BT's that you can't stop once in motion.

2. Proof. In my first AOR I have one issue with Citi on bonus points but other than that, all cards have come in as expected. My second AOR I didn't bother at all. To save it, don't bother with the pdf, just print to file (microsoft file writer) then you can print it as needed in the future.

3. Idea on only using TU and EQ is way anal retentive! The only time this will bite you is on the re-up and even then if over a year it won't.

4. Citi Professional is a personal card. I can send you a link for 0% 12 months no bt fee and a free 10K typ (on first purchase) and as a bonus I get 10K typ If you can't find a decent link. Just PM me. Wait, looking at your offer there is no fee... How about it you want to use my link lol its the same offer and I get TY points also OK enough begging.

You can also add a Citi ATT rewards card with 6K TYP bonus. The ATT universal card does not seem to "count" toward the citi applicaiton limit and I have successfully gotten Drivers Edge, ATT, and Professional in the same AOR.

I'd request a BT with the Bank Atlantic app too - I requested a $15k BT, was instantly approved for $15200 (not sure if it was related, but I wonder what would have happened had I requested a $20k BT?). Doesnt hurt, and being a Biz card you dont need to worry about any high utilization showing on your report.

If you want a good card to boost available credit (for overall utilization), try the US Bank Baylor Alumni card - it gave me a $15k limit as card #17 (pull #5 on EXP) in my A0R. No good for BTs (no-cap fee) but 0% applies to purchases too.

And you may be pushing it with Chase. But since terms are the same, you may want to atleast move the Sony card first to ensure the $100 credit (would be a shame if they cut you off at 4 apps). I'd drop one or two (I got the feeling that 4 - 2 personal and 2 biz - ended up being one too many for me), but the worst that can happen is they reject them so no real harm for the learning opportunity.

I decided to drop Chase GM Business. That means 2 Chase biz and 2 Chase personal. Adding USBank Baylor makes the final count 21 – 7 business and 14 personal.

And we’re off…let's see whether we can take care of all 21 at one sitting.

In terms of "too much citi apps" it really depends on what you're going for, and if you don't mind the extra inquiries. I applied for the "supermax" of 5 (2 personal, 2 business, 1 prof). A couple were for 0%, the rest were for bonuses.

Updated QS

Regarding BofA - I figured I'd want to ask for a CLI and/or transfer part of my existing BofA CL to the new card. So I waited until Monday morning. The conversation went something like this:

I mentioned my surprise at the weak 4,400 CL.
The CSR asked whether I was planning to do a BT.
Glad you mentioned that -- I was surprised at low CL
Do you have a BT amount in mind? Maybe we can do something about that...
My income, employment (I always volunteer my job longevty here), HHI, mtge payment (nice to report, since it excludes insurance and taxes).
He told me there would be a hard inquiry, but I figured I'd take the hit.

On hold, he comes back
Tells me he will transfer me to a credit guy
Sr. credit guy takes down similar info from me
On hold for a while, comes back
"There must have been some kind of oversight"
He mentioned 1976 as age of my credit
(Note: They originally pulled EX; this time, it was EQ. This must be the reason my credit looks so good?)
Boom! CLI to 15k!
Not only that, but while the terms seem to indicate BTs are for other credit lines, the credit guy talked in terms of BTing to my checking. I have no problem there!

Next conversation with same credit guy:
He called, and I asked about taking an old 10K line and moving 7.5k of it to the new card. No problem, so he took my checking acct info and sent 20k to it. So the new 4.4k line turned into a 22.5k line. (11/1: reporting as 27.5K?!)

AND in the process, he started gushing about how good my credit was and offered me a new 5k line (no inquiry) on a BofA/AMEX card. "Loads of features," he said, including 1.99% BT w/ $75 cap (at 5k, not that attractive). Several minutes of legalese later, the card was mine.

Great tip about Disc Open Road, I'll try it and report.

Re Sony, guess I was focusing too much on biz. Also, the browser (or I) messed up on Citi Prof, Citi Biz and Chase Sony, so I had to apply about 16 hours after the others.