jackcrawfish said:curious.... how did you manage getting AARP account? are you over 50 (as i recall the age minimum for AARP membership)? or am I missing an obvious loophole here?I'm 23, so loophole . You can join AARP as an "associate member" at any age so long as you "support thier mission and objectieves...blah blah blah." It is $12 a year membership fee, and you don't get all the benefits of AARP full membership, but you do get the banking ones (which is the only thing I need from them at age 23).

To get the associate membership for $12 if you are under 50 so that you can join AARP, call 1-888-687-2277.

MikeR397 said:Another question: While I've disputed all the personal balances, I haven't disputed any of the balances on my D&B busienss report. Obviously this won't affect my personal apps, but how will it affect my business apps if the balances are still up (85%). I've never pulled my business reports and have no idea what is showing. I'd hate to fire off blanks with all my business apps becuase my balances are still reporting high. Does every issuer pull both the personal and D&B report when issuing a new business card? Suggestions?per veryhungry Sep 2004 in this thread:eUpdate is the way to check your own dnb rating.

slappycakes thread has paydex score information posted by nummerkins

Mike, good luck. One general piece of advice I have is to carefully weigh the cost of each and every app (especially personal). The big boys (e.g., Citi) who have previously turned a blind eye to 10+ new accounts will now just starting closing accounts first and ask questions later. I would think your limited credit history would be especially vulnerable. You may even consider a rolling AOR approach to minimize A/A.

[steps off soapbox]

As far as more detailed advice...

1) Nat City wouldn't give me a lifesprings card because I already had a "regular" personal card. YMMV.
2) What's your end goal with Citi? The CashReturns deal is so potentially lucrative, I would consider delaying extra apps and/or BTs with them to keep them happy while you're getting your 5% cash.back.
3) WAMU is waste of time without a pre-approval.
4) There's a no-fee BofA BT offer running around. Look in the "no fees for BTs" thread.
5) Discover is stingy - might want to just do the biz app and not waste the new personal account.
6) Are you sure you're in 5/3's lending area?

lhendricks92 said:Mike, good luck. One general piece of advice I have is to carefully weigh the cost of each and every app (especially personal). The big boys (e.g., Citi) who have previously turned a blind eye to 10+ new accounts will now just starting closing accounts first and ask questions later. I would think your limited credit history would be especially vulnerable. You may even consider a rolling AOR approach to minimize A/A.

[steps off soapbox]

As far as more detailed advice...

1) Nat City wouldn't give me a lifesprings card because I already had a "regular" personal card. YMMV.
2) What's your end goal with Citi? The CashReturns deal is so potentially lucrative, I would consider delaying extra apps and/or BTs with them to keep them happy while you're getting your 5% cash.back.
3) WAMU is waste of time without a pre-approval.
4) There's a no-fee BofA BT offer running around. Look in the "no fees for BTs" thread.
5) Discover is stingy - might want to just do the biz app and not waste the new personal account.
6) Are you sure you're in 5/3's lending area?That is my plan with Citi. I'm not doing any BT's with them until the end of the 5% promo. Also, I am doing all my Citi apps first, so they will not see anyone elses inquiries (they pull instantly, not delayed).

I know of the no fee BOA offer (that is what I did previously). My mom has two of those cards, so I know they let you have multiples, which I'll probably do rather than the NEA with $30 BT fee.

I am still debating discover. They are stingy. I think I will likely just to a business app.

I am in 5/3's lending area. They are my main checking account I use, and both my parents have thier business cards (both at $10k CL). Their cards are kinda a pain to get (must fax docs) and to use (can only pay electronically through a 5/3 account), but they are still worth it.

I thought the Citi CashReturns 5% offer was dead.

UPDATE - ADDED LINKS TO ALL APPLICATIONS.

These are the best signup offers I can find for these cards. If you know of a better link, please let me know.

cyberkost said:Mike, I see you have Wachovia at the end of your personal and business lists. Do you have a relationship with the bank already? If not, it's going to be a phone app (it may be a phone app. for business cc regardless), and my experience is that they look at your credit report and discuss it with you during the call. Are you sure you'll want to have that conversation?Good call, I was originaly planning on doing just the personal app. Does the personal app requrie a phone conversation like that, or only the business one (which you do have to call about).

I'll bump the business one to the maybe pile. I may do it as my very last app.

cyberkost said:Mike, I see you have Wachovia at the end of your personal and business lists. Do you have a relationship with the bank already? If not, it's going to be a phone app (it may be a phone app. for business cc regardless), and my experience is that they look at your credit report and discuss it with you during the call. Are you sure you'll want to have that conversation?FWIW, jevon90 said: [applied for] Wachovia Biz card and they pulled EQ for me in DC

twins0203 said:Mike,

I checked out your links for the Citi Diamond Preferred and the Citi Cash Rewards and they don't have a cap on the 0% BT. Are you just signing up for them to help your utilization or have they changed the terms recently?Actually, those cards are really just to get more credit to move/consolidate to the Citi Cash Rewards card for purchases. However, I really appreciate you pointing that out b/c to get the CL from the Associated Card to the 5% card requries closing and consolidating, and then after the 3 month 5% purchase promo I'll have all that Citi credit without a BT opportunity! (and the good thing about Citi BT's is that they last for 12 mo's from the date you do the BT ). I like the Diamond Preferred card b/c it seems to give big CL's, at least in my experience.

Edit: Substited the Diamond Preferred for the 0% No BT Fee Citi U Promise to do the Citi BT after the 3 month 5% promo expires on the Cash Rewards Card.

UnixLab said:I don't see anywhere mentions about BT fee for NationalCity biz card
Is it no fee BT or cap? please let me know if you see it somewhere.Hum. Well I can say that my father has this card and did a BT without any fee at all. I'm pretty sure it used to say no fee, so I suppose I need to call and verify this with National City first. Also, despite it saying 6 mo, my father's was a 12 month promo. I'll post back when I confirm the BT fee.

Edit: Just called to confirm that there is no BT fee. Forgot to get the reps name though...I will get thier info when I call to apply over the phone (applying online delays the process as they do a manual review of all accounts, so applying by phone speeds the process up by 2-3 days).