I'm unemployed and my balances are slowly rising. I've been ping-ponging them around using BT promos and paying very little interest. I recently moved and the CC offers (with good teaser rates) suddenly STOPPED coming in. I haven't seen one in two months where before I would get 1-2 per week. Yes, my change-of-address forwarding is working. To make matters worse, the BT promo offers for my existing accounts are drying up, too. I can currently do Citi at 7.9% until paid and I have about 3 months left on a 2.9% CapOne offer. That's it, and I'm not as comfortable with this as I used to be. My balances are still low and my EQ is 754 as of one week ago, so I doubt that my credit is an issue right now. Anyhow, I'm about to start a short-term contract job assignment that will function as "current employment" and I'd like to apply for a new CC during that period (in case they do employment verification). Not because I need the credit - I have over 70k available right now - but because I want to increase the chances of having a BT promo available to me at any given point in time, FICO be damned. What should I get? Here is my lineup: CU LOC - 5k Amex LOC - 5.5k Citi Plat - 17.5k Amex Blue - 24.5k CapOne Titanium - 10k MBNA "GoldOption" LOC - 15.7k I would like to convert the MBNA LOC over to a Plat or Quantum but the interest rate is higher than the 9.9% I now have on the LOC. Also, I'm not sure that they're even going to offer promos where they waive the xfer fees - MBNA loves those fees. If that's the case, I'll just keep the LOC. Chase was offering me 0% for 12 months a while back. I'd be THRILLED to take them up on that right now. Does Mr. Cooke have the ability to offer BT promos? I doubt that CapOne likes me very much... I SOCK-DRAWERED my CapOne the day I got it since it has nearly 100% of my revolving debt at a teaser rate. I am *so* not a profitable customer to them... Fleet? Bank One? First USA? I had an account with them some time ago and I never had any of the problems that others seem to have had with these schmucks. Have they cleaned up their act? Discover? I'd even consider a card with an annual fee, provided the interest rate is low enough. Wachovia? Pulaski? RM
When your balances go too high, they will stop sending you the offers. That is probably why the offers dried up. Just how high are your balances? They have probably caught on to what you are doing. I know. I am the expert here on this issue. Also, your CL's are high. Depending on your income when you are working, you may have reached the maximum of what they will give you. They are probably doing monthly credit report checks on you by now, especially if you have been taking cash advances. Expect your APR's to go over 20% when your balances get higher. If you think this will continue, then I recommend getting more cards now while you can (it may already be too late). Forget juniper. They will not give you one when you have high balances. Citi is good for up to three cards - do a search on the BDD on this board. Try Generations, their credit line is hidden (they don't report to the CRA's). Generations will give you a lot more credit if you do a big balance transfer. But, they do want to verify employment and income. But, with it being hidden, I would give it a try. Also, they are very good to deal with - you can call them and tell them what you want to do and they will give you advice. What I mean by this is to tell them you want to get a good rate so that you can transfer your balances to the card. Don't tell them that you are living off your cards. Is your AMEX LOC hidden? If so, that helps a lot. Avoid FirstUSA. As soon as they smell that you have a problem, your rates will go to 20+% and they will take back any remaining credit you have available with them. MBNA gives very high limits. You can have more than one card with them. Forget Wells Fargo. Here is the key. Have as much credit available as you can. When someone jacks up your rate, you need to move the credit to another card. Sooner or later, they will all jack up your rates. Get the credit lines now while you can. You have to have somewhere to go when the rates start going up. IN your situation, you can never have too much available credit.
>When your balances go too high, they will stop >sending you the offers. That is probably why the >offers dried up. Just how high are your balances? Not very: CU LOC - ZERO Amex LOC - ZERO MBNA LOC - ZERO Amex Blue - Was about 2.5k, is now ZERO Citi - Was about 1k, is now ZERO CapOne - Was 4k for several months, just went to 6k. As you can see by looking at my CL's (above), my total utilization is under 10%. >They have probably caught on to what you are >doing. I know. I am the expert here on this issue. Yeah, every month the money is sitting on a different account. Some of the tradelines may not have updated yet, so my report is probably showing a utilization higher than what it truly is. >Also, your CL's are high. Depending on your >income when you are working, you may have >reached the maximum of what they will give you. I'm not as interested in a CL bump as I am in having a new account (along with the attendant BT promo). >They are probably doing monthly credit report >checks on you by now, especially if you have been >taking cash advances. No cash advances. I use the CU LOC to dump $2k or so into my checking account and then use a BT promo to pay off the LOC. I can then write checks, click-to-pay, or get cash from the ATM. Really damned handy, that Credit Union LOC is. The CC issuers think they're being smart by setting separate cash advance limits which are a tiny fraction of the overall line. I'm a crafty little sucker. >Expect your APR's to go over 20% when your >balances get higher. If you think this will continue, >then I recommend getting more cards now while >you can (it may already be too late). Which is one reason why I posted this. In the past, I've had utilization over 60% and nobody gave me a hassle, not even First USA. I'm not banking on that happening again, though. >Citi is good for up to three cards - do a search on >the BDD on this board. Any thoughts on which card to go for? >Is your AMEX LOC hidden? If so, that helps a lot. If I can't find a better place to put my balance when the CapOne BT promo expires, I'll stuff as much as I can onto the Amex LOC. Yes, I think it's still hidden. It's prime+2.9 but it's only 5.5k - probably because of my high Amex Blue limit versus my moderate income. >Here is the key. Have as much credit available as >you can. When someone jacks up your rate, you >need to move the credit to another card. Sooner or >later, they will all jack up your rates. Get the credit >lines now while you can. You have to have >somewhere to go when the rates start going up. IN >your situation, you can never have too much >available credit. Yup. I want to be in the position of being able to zero out and sock-drawer (or even close) the bad actors. RM
