peteypablo said:
I think these banks are violating federal law by considering the credit of other people at the same address. OP's example is the most clear; they closed accounts that presented no problem at all considered on their own, and in fact were unable to even give a reason for the closing in some cases. Surely it is not legal to close an account simply because you live with people who are credit risks. Each of us has the right to be considered on his or her own merits. Most of the reasons given are clearly trumped up.

There are two problems with this argument:

1) Bank's T&C likely allow it to close accounts for any reason it wants.
2) If lines are underwritten based on HHI it would be difficult for anyone to argue that he/she can count the same HHI multiple times for all the lines.

Those who want to play arbitrage games with hundreds of thousands or millions of OPM are really ought to create structures that arent that closely linked.

Congress act has to do with married people not having to apply jointly. Desiring for this to be anything other than what the law says is foolish. There are some interesting state laws on the books in some states - see the inserts in your CC T&C.

Nowhere in the law does it say how the HHI should be counted. People routinely tell AMEX to go and f!ck itself when they are flagged for FR because of the lies in applications losing AMEX lines in process. Why? Because no one wants to argue that he/she commited fraud to obtain the line. Counting your HHI multiple times via buz/personal/wife/brother/sister living in the same HH is a risk one takes. Laws of economics dictate as we become better mice, OPM managers build better mouse traps. The solution is not to scream how the new mousetraps are inhumane while we steal the cheese, it is to become better mice again.

Separate PO boxes?

Separate Apt# will probably do.

I'm pretty sure the big boys are now creating new flags and are doing more manual review and are much less tolerant for abuse. Can't really blame them, so long as they are still reasonable.

On a related note, yesterday I processed a return on my AMEX card, and minutes later I tried to use it for some trivial shopping when the clerk told me "it says you should call AMEX". I called them later and found out that AMEX has just created a whole new department dedicated to fraud prevention due to the recent increase in credit card fraud. Apparently they haven't worked the kinks out of the pattern detection algorithm yet.

MikeR397 said:lhendricks92 said:See if you can find the A/R soft pulls from Citi (mine are always EQ) to determine exactly when they started the process.Where can I see the soft pulls? The only time I've seen them is getting my free annual credit report. I don't think TrueCredit, CreditProtect, or CreditSecure shows them, do they?Soft pulls viewable by disputing a balance on any one of the 40 tradelines you currently have reporting. For example, even if you just made a standard $25 monthly payment to a BOA account which had a balance of $1,000, dispute the credit report showing $1,000 as inaccurate (The balance is actually $975).

edit: for EQ report, you would click the radio button "Denied Credit, Insurance, Change in Credit Limit or Other Benefit" since there was a change in your credit limit(s)

scott1961 said:MikeR397 said:I'm pretty sure the big boys are now creating new flags and are doing more manual review and are much less tolerant for abuse. Can't really blame them, so long as they are still reasonable.
Mike always thought you must have some big balls to do what you have been doing and has made for fun reading, But in todays credit environment this was bound to happen. good luckSure, not like I didn't see it coming. A relatively minor setback, even if I can't get any Citi lines open. There are still lots of other credit issuers out there and given my past profits, and profits I'll still make with this upcoming AOR, this is only a minor blip in the whole scheme of things. Obviously things like this piss me off, but you really have to put them in perspective with the big picture. All and all, I can't tell you how much my lifestyle has improved since discovering FWF 14 months ago. Certainly people can see the shiny black Infiniti G35 coupe I drive as a second year law student (paid for with cash), maxed out ROTH IRA, and with no student debt, but the most important thing is my change in attitude about spending money. I'm much more outgoing now, and have no problem spending $ going out to dinner/bars with friends, rather than passing these great opportunites down when I'm in my early 20's. Other than education, FWF and AOR is the best financial thing that has ever happened to me.

Now, its time to go back to the beach to finish my Cuban cigar and CayBrew. Goodnight FWF.

saviola said:Mike,

Fascinating stuff reading about your recent AOR. As I get ready to do an AOR of my own, I need to ask you this very urgent question, so here goes: if I'm maxed out on several cards with one issuer like BofA to the tune of $60K, BUT all the maxed out charges HAVE NOT HIT MY CREDIT REPORT at the time of the AOR. In other words, the ~$60K is merely in authorized/pending charges and is absent from all CRAs, will BofA know I'm maxed out at the time of the its online app + AOR?

That is to say that although my credit profiles show $0 balances, can BofA ascertain in 60/120 seconds that I've $60K in authorized charges with them?

Now it's possible that if the app is deferred and a manual review is done, they'll notice. But what will drive their decision in case they do a manual Mike? The fact that all my scores are above 750 or the fact that I've $60K wortha authorized charges (mainly BTs)?

Now it goes without saying that Citi will not know what I owe BofA if the debt is off the CRAs, but the big question is what will BofA know and when will it know it? More importantly, how will $60K in pending BTs on several cards impact its decision to extend new credit, IF it can see the $60K?

If anyone else would like to weigh in on the subject, the input would be much appreciated.I can't speak with any real authority on the subject other than my speculation, but I would assume that BOA will be able to see your $60k of pending balances. Furthermore, they will also take into account how much credit you already have with them vs your HHI to determine if you'll get more new credit (regardless of if you have pending balances). I know they generally use income bands. For my dad, they told him that $100k in personal credit was all he was going to get at an HHI of $250k (this does not include business credit, which should not influence thier decision for personal credit).

In any event, if you have a 0% offer on $60k already pending, I'd not worry about it and just try one new app with BOA. Worst that happens is they deny you. They may do something like approve you for the new card, but only for $1k CL and then let you move Cl's around, or they may automatically move some of your available CL to that new card as well. That is what has happened to me in the past. Also, you are correct that if those balances don't hit your credit report (ie you can't see them when you pull your credit), the other companies won't see them either. However, be careful b/c BOA seems to update on my reports VERY quickly. Good luck.

what was the story regarding closing accounts that had balances? did you address that yet?