Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank No, not exactly. Rather it works like the "Target" and "Cap1" thing: Let's say your limit is $25,000, but like Target, Cap1 and some others, Citi won't report the limit because they want you to always look like you're maz out so when you apply for other credit cards to balance the Citi balance to -- maybe even closing the Citi account -- the other CC will decline you because you're "maxed" on the Citi cards. It's intentionall, trust me. Here's what we do: 1) Charge up to $25,000 just days before Citi reports to the CRAs (usually this is with balance transfers -- we don't actually spend that much on our personal cards!) 2) Citi proudly reports our "high balance" as $25,000, (thinking "ha-ha" no other CC will want them now!!) 3) But we have a special low rate with Citi for the BT, so the interest isn't much. 4) Immediately after Citi reports to all 3, we transfer that balance back off to something else (again at a low BT rate) 5) Next month Citi reports, say $4,000, but the CRA says the "high balance" is $25,000. Thus effectively creating a "psuedo-limit" and a low blance, which in turn FICO interprets as a low ratio, almost as if Citi had reported the limit themselves. It effect, we outsmart Cit and lower our ratios (and get a BT besides. FYI, with BT's what I usually do is charge property taxes, property insurance, builders risk insurance, etc. to a reward earning card, then BT it to CitiBank. Since I always had the cash to pay it anyway, it's a simple way to earn rewards. So intead of paying the taxes, etc. direct with a check, I charge it, collect the rewards, then pay the BT it, then pay it off with biz construction draws. This technique, as I've said has earned us a couple of European trips, 2 ski trips, a couple of beach resort trips all free just charging things I was going to pay cash for anyway. So in addition from the profit from sale of our properties, we earn ourselves at least 1 vacation per house! (Granted, some have been a 3-4 trip to Galveston Beach, but heck it was free and helps relieve our stress from the work load).
Just a thought for the cap one/target cardholders. I don't want to use them because they are such low limits, it's just a hassle. I am letting $0 balance report like my other cards, but they list a higher number as high balance and of course no card limit. Am I hurting myself? I thought I was generating a pseudo cl by charging it up the one time, letting that high balance report and then just keeping a zero balance after that.
Just a thought for the cap one/target cardholders. I don't want to use them because they are such low limits, it's just a hassle. I am letting $0 balance report like my other cards, but they list a higher number as high balance and of course no card limit. Am I hurting myself? I thought I was generating a pseudo cl by charging it up the one time, letting that high balance report and then just keeping a zero balance after that.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank I hope they see me waving at them! hehe Hope, did you say that you guys do not apply for any personal credit, or only to combine cl's and if so, who is the best to do that with? or do you rely on auto increases? If you combine, do you keep the age of the existing acct? I am really fighting a battle with low ave age of accts.
Textron HEY!! What about pooch's idea of opening a biz checking or savings with them to get them to notice us?!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank One more question....if there is no pre-set limit, do you have to pay it in full once it reports to the bureau?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank We wait for only auto increases on the personal accounts. We no longer apply for new personal CCs, nor allow current ones to pull hard inquiries. Citi gives us an auto increase on our anniversary month for each card (which ends up being 2 increases yearly). FirstUSA/Bank One gives us an increase every 6 months on anniversary and semi-anniversary (again twice a year). AMEX gave us a $10k increase with a promotional offer that lots of folks here got (no hard inquiry). We combined 2 FirstUSA cards to get 1 big limit. They let us keep whichever date we wanted, so naturally we chose the oldest date.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Farm Bureau Bank No, when we get the statement, we have to pay the usual 2% of the balance, plus the total $ amount that's over our internally-set limit.
RE: 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 Do you recall which, if any, pulled from Equifax. I also live in TX. Congratulations on your success.
