Anyone have a relationship with Farm Bureau Bank? We are interested specifically in their biz loc. Don't know who they pull or what to expect. Thanks
Been awhile and I can't recall if I followed up in some other posts, but I promised I would so... We were approved for $35,000 from Farm Bureau. We asked for $50k, but I would have settled for $25k so I'm very, very happy. This is helping us put together a big spec project and we will need the working capital for cushion. FYI...I don't think you can download the app and fax it back anymore. I recall seeing it in Adobe format a few days before we applied, but when I went to print it out, the link had changed to an online form, so I had no choice. The curious thing was a week went by and hubby's credit hadn't been pulled, so he called and sure enough the CS reps didn't even know that FBB had changed to an online form, so they hadn't checked the email (whatever the app went). The CS was very apologetic and promised to to back him in 24 hours. Next day they called to say "Approved for $35k". They pulled EXP in Texas.
We were approved as well, although interestingly it was for the 15k transfer I requested. I faxed in our financials and they were reviewing for the 50k. Hope, you guys are really tearing it up with biz credit, what all do you have now?
Well, let's see: 1) Chase biz LOC: $100,000 2) Wells Fargo biz LOC: $50,000 3) Hibernia Bank biz LOC: $50,000 4) Farm Bureau biz LOC: $50,000 5) AMEX Business CapitalLine LOC: $35,000 6) Textron biz LOC: $35,000 7) Advanta biz CC: $7,500 8) Home Depot Commercial: $3,500 Total of $331,000 That's 3 times as much personal credit as we have. But we focused solely on biz credit for the last year and a half and have made no apps for personal credit in 19 months (and don't intend to; instead we rely on automatic line increases so we don't suffer any extra hard inquiries). And when we get biz lines, we quickly use some of it to transfer (hide) balances on ONLY the personal cards that report the limit (NOT Citibank AAdvantage cards!) That instantly improves hubbys ratios and raise his scores dramatically. So I know now the formula to keep for his credit reports. Goog thing, too, 'cause the project we're solidifying right now is a $1,400,000 spec that calls for a $887,000 mortgage (including land)!
Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank Holy smoly batman! I want to be like Hope! (forget mike lol) We want to focus on biz credit too. I didn't realize how much new personal lines are hurting us and how easy it was to get biz credit, I wish I had done that. Now I am letting my accounts age and not applying for anything personal. I get enough biz inqs eek! Unfortunately they all want to pull exp lately....whew too many exp inqs. What personal cards have you felt were worth keeping that give good auto line increases? Do you use your credit at all? (Doesn't sound like you need to lol) What kind of ratio do you keep on personal credit? Dempooches was saying they keep less than 5% showing. Are you developing now? How exciting!! Does your bank require cash down or are you beyond all that? (Depends on the bank here!)
Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank We keep: (A) 2 CitiBank cards (1 World MasterCard AAdvantage and 1 Signature VISA). We like 'em because we earn 1 mile for every dollar charged (sometimes 2 depending on promotions). It's paid for our honeymoon in Europe last year and will pay for me to take my Mom to England in November. They both give automatic increases each year. (B) FirstUSA (Bank One) Priority CLUB VISA -- it also pays us 1 hotel point per $ charged. Took an anniversary trip to the beach in the Spring! It gives an automatic increase every 6 months. (C) Discover VISA -- we only use it once a year at Christmas just so they won't close it. The cashback is paltry and there are so many rules it's disgusting. They also take months to report whenever you pay it off because they don't want better cards to see $0 balance. Otherwise, it stays inthe sock drawer. It's best use to us to for keeping our overall ratios low. They've NEVER given us an increase. (D) AMEX Platinum/Optima -- we also keep this at $0 much of the time to keep overall ratios low. But they do earn 1 point per $ that we can transfer to miles or hotel points. (E) AMEX Gold (for emergencies only -- seldom used) Our goal is to only have cards that will earn us some kind of extra dividend (miles, hotel, etc.), that will give us automatic increases (except for Discover) and that have generous credit lines. Yes, we really do use the cards -- mostly CitiBank and FirstUSA for the obvious reasons. We also ALWAYS carry a balance on CitiBank whenever we're going for a mortgage, because we found out the hard way that paying them off tanks our scores like a ton bricks because they don't report the limits, only the hit balance. The most fruitful thing to do when it's mortgage time is to pay off all the cards that report a balance. Sometimes we've even transfered them to CitiBank, since there's no pre-set limit anyway and it won't tank our scores. Best of all, we can now hide it with biz LOC's, so given notice, I can push hubby's scores temporarily to the 770's. We're not developing yet. Just specs. And we've reached the point on smaller specs that the bank will finance 100$ (under $350,000 cost total). But with this latest high-end product being our first in that dollar amount, they asked for 5% down. After we sell it, they'll go back to 100%. But they do heavily scrutinize the project, even went to look at the lot and count the trees, verified the architect and all accounts with the subs and vendors!! Wish us luck!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank PS I doubt this will be the same, but who did Hibernia and Textron pull and do they lend anywhere besides TX?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank Hadn't thought about who'd we want if not for the rewards, but I still like CitiBank because of the nopreset limit. It's fairly easy to "create" a limit for the reports just by letting a maximum balance ride until after it posts to the CRAs, then dropping back from that amount. I still would like FirstUSA/Bank One because of the generous limit (we combined 2 cards for a total $29,300 which looks impressive to other CC's and encourages them to continue to raise our limits without hard pulls. My son has AMEX Hilton Honors, which I'd get if we wanted a new personal card -- which we don't. 80% after-built value or ARV is what I meant, but of course that always adds up to 100% of the project cost, so usually we put down nothing. Hibernia pulled Equifax and Textron pulled TU.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank I looked at the Textron website and they look like they really mean business. Are they easy to deal with? Has anyone tried to buy a jet or get involved with the fractional jet ownership program?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank I have no idea because THEY contacted US and offered us the biz LOC. They pulled a promotional review of our DnB report first. We didn't fill out an application or send any docs. They just pulled a hard and FedExed us a checkbook NEXT DAY!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank Ok, so if I understand correctly, at statement time citibank reports your balance as maximum balance, so it looks like your credit limit? Why don't they just report it as the balance? strange.
