Mini App-O-Rama

[Cubswin]

I did my first mini App-O-Rama this morning and thought I’d share my experience with you all. The purpose of this App-O-Rama was to whore sign-up rewards (to help pay for my honeymoon) and to increase total available credit for future 0% balance transfer arbitrage opportunities. I just signed a lease on a town home and won't be buying a car or house anytime soon so I decided to take a short term hit on my FICO. Here is a run down of the App-O-Rama:

Existing Cards: (card name, limit, balance, age of account)
Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX, $19,000 limit, $1,200 balance, 1 year
Capitol One No Hassle $5,000 limit, $0 balance, 9 years
Chase Flexible Rewards $5,800 limit, $0 balance, 2 years
United Mileage Plus (Chase), $10,000 limit, $100 balance, 1 year
Bank of America, $5,000 limit, $0 balance, 4 years
Citi AAdvantage, $9,700 limit, $0 balance, 1 year
Carsons, $800 limit, $0 balance, 6 years
Dell $1,500 limit, $0 balance, 3 years
Banana Republic, $750, 4 years

Authorized User on the following accounts:
Chase Flexible Rewards, ? limit, $0 balance, 13 years
Capitol One no Hassle, ? limit, $0 balance, 6 years

Student Loan Balance: ~$13,000

Total Revolving Credit Line: $57,550+

Beginning credit Score: 729 Equifax

Hard Inquiries Last 12 Months:
July 2007 – Apartment Rental
April 2007 – Bank of America
October 2006 – Chase

Personal Cards Applied For:

NWA Airlines Visa, USA Bank
22K Miles + 5K Miles for $500 Spending the first 2 months, No Annual Fee First Year
800-360-2900 ext 32106 *** Have your World Perks number available***
Link
Approval Status: Pending

Citi Select/AAdvantage AMEX
20K Miles for $750 spent first 4 months + 10K Miles for $10,000 spent in first year.
No Annual Fee First Year
Link
Approval Status: APPROVED! $7,000 limit


Business Cards Applied For:

United Mileage Business (Chase)
25K Bonus Miles, No Annual Fee First Year
Link
Approval Status: Pending

CitiBusiness/AAvantage AMEX
20K Miles for $750 spent first 4 months + 10K Miles for $10,000 spent in first year
No Annual Fee First Year
Link
Approval Status: APPROVED!, $4,000 limit

Starwood Preferred Guest Business AMEX
10K SPG Points, No Annual Fee First Year
Link
Approval Status: APPROVED!, limit pending

AMEX Gold Business
25K Membership Rewards Points + $100 Tiger Direct Gift Card, No Annual Fee First Year
Link
Approval Status: APPROVED!, limit pending

Discussion about applying for business cards

How I applied for the business cards:
Business Type: Sole Proprietorship
Business Name: My Name Here
Years in Business: 0
Revenue: $0

To sum up: 4 out of 6 cards were instantly approved (1 or 2 personal cards and 3 of 4 business cards). If all goes as planned, I'll have a crap load of miles, 10K SPG points and a $100 Tiget Direct gift card. I’ll report back once I hear more.

[Nomad84]

Any reason you didn't go for more? Just trying for specific signup bonuses and that's it? Be sure to post your final credit score once everything is finished. My guess: 680 (mostly a random guess though)

[Cubswin]

I was mostly after the rewards to top off some of my mileage accounts and get some SPG points for hotel stays. After this round of applications, I should have around 70k starpoints, 100k in my AA account, 100k in my United account and 60k in my NWA account. I guess I could have gone after Delta, Continental and US Air as well, but I have no or low existing balances with them. Maybe next time.

I think I should have plenty of miles and SPG points for a solid honeymoon. Guess I just have to figure out where we want to go now.

I think the score will settle somewhere around 690 but who knows. Once all the hard pulls show I might do a little experiment and see if bumpage can help the score get back up. I'm not too concerned about the score... it will be plenty good whenever I decide to buy a house (1-2 years).

[Nomad84]

How much are all of the points/miles worth? I know you'll be traveling, but can they be converted into cash or cash equivalents (gift cards, etc.)? I'm not familiar with these point/mile programs and I'm sure there are others that also aren't familiar with them.

[Cubswin]

No converting them into cash, though, I think the AMEX points can be converted to gift cards. I would not do this as they have more value when used for flights if you know how to effectively use them.

I think Starpoints have the best value. I booked a hotel next weekend for 3k points a night. The lowest advertised rate on the room is currently $140 a night which means the points are worth over 4.5 cents each. This crushes the cash rewards offered by any credit card when you consider they start you off with a healthy sign-up bonus. There are some credit cards that offer 5% back for select purchases such as gas and these can be good as well, but I like the initial bonus. Of course, not all redemption opportunities are as good as the hotel I booked next weekend. There are different tiers for different hotels. Free nights start at 3k points and go up to well over 20k points for exclusive properties. Starpoints are cool because you can use them on hotels (typically the best use for them) or you can convert 20k points into 25k miles on most airlines.

With the airline miles, you redeem a certain number of miles for a plane ticket. Most domestic flights start at around 25k miles, Caribbean and Central America 30-35k miles, Europe 40-50k miles, and Asia 50k+. The trick is not to redeem the miles on flights that are typically cheap. For instance, I wouldn't redeem 25k miles on NWA for a flight from Washington, DC to Chicago as these seats are like $150. I would, however, redeem 25k miles on NWA for a flight from Washington, DC to Alaska as this flight is easily $600+.

Ask away with any other question you may have. Oh... and Starwood just sent me a refer-a-friend offer where I get 5k points if someone signs up with my code. The person opening the account gets 10k Starpoints as well which is their standard offer. You get 1 point for every $ spent. Just throwing that out there in case your interested.... [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Cubswin]

Interesting...

[captZEEbo]

[ QUOTE ]
Interesting...



[/ QUOTE ]I've heard it's only about 5pts deducted per hard inquiry and you probably gain points with all the approvals.

[Cubswin]

Update:

Personal Cards Applied For:

NWA Airlines Visa, USA Bank
Approval Status: APPROVED! $9,000 limit

Citi Select/AAdvantage AMEX
Approval Status: APPROVED! $7,000 limit


Business Cards Applied For:

United Mileage Business, Chase
Approval Status: APPROVED!, $10,000 limit

CitiBusiness/AAvantage AMEX
Approval Status: APPROVED!, $4,000 limit

Starwood Preferred Guest Business AMEX
Approval Status: APPROVED!, $15,000 limit

AMEX Gold Business
Approval Status: APPROVED!, no preset limit

Sign-up Bonus Summary

40,000 AAdvantage Miles ($800)
27,000 NWA Miles ($540)
25,000 United Miles ($500)
25,000 Membership Rewards Points ($250)
10,000 SPG Points ($400)
Tiger Direct Gift Card: ($100)
Estimated value of all bonuses: $2,590

Summary of Available Credit

$16,000 increase in personal line of credit
$29,000+ new business line of credit

Total Available Personal Credit...$73,550+
Total Available Business Credit...$29,000+
Total Available Credit................$102,550+

Equifax Credit Score: Still 732... for now