January 2007

This Series has been updated: Check out the New Part 5 here.

By now you should have a pretty good amount of money in that 5% Savings account. I don’t need to tell you to not touch that money period(other than to pay your monthly minimum payment). This is guarantee money earning interest. Don’t do anything fancy like putting into a mutual fund. Again, this is not your money really…you are just shuffling money around. You want guarantee money in a liquid 5% savings account with easy access.

Now come my final installment of App-O-Rama- taking care of all those monthly bills. This is the main reason why people won’t do App-O-Rama…”too much hassle”..”I can’t keep this up”…”If I miss one payment, I’m screw..blah blah”….That is krazyy…If someone tell me that you gonna give me 5K every year to take care of a few bills..sign me up man! Here is what I do:

1. I do all my balance transfer at the same time
2. Set a reminder in my cell phone and in my Google Calendar around the 11th month to pay off my balance.
3. Add all my credit cards info in my Everbank Account (Everbank.com is where I do my monthly minimum payment..check out my review here)
4. Set a recurring minimum monthly payment to all my 0% APR cards once I get my first statement.

What about BT fees? Didn’t you say there are ways to get out of that? haha…I did a few times..although it may be a little dirty…

1. For Bank of America credit cards, I was able to talk to the CSR to do BT with no fees..even though my cards originally say that there is a 3% BT fees. When you first activate your card with the CSR, I am sure they will mention BT…act like you don’t know about BT…keep asking about the BT fees…then start to hustle..say something like..”wow..that is great..I want to do BT right now..but I don’t want to pay any BT fees”…or “I hear BOA offers no BT fees..is that true?”…some BS along those lines.
2. With Chase credit cards, there is a $75 cap fee on BT. Now they won’t advertise this, but when you do BT with Chase…tell them that “my friend did BT within thirty days..he was offered no BT fee…can you give me the same offer?”…of course play dumb at the beginning..act like you don’t know jack…get them to hype you up. Stick out carrot lines like “yeah, I would love to do a 15K BT right now..but only if there is no BT fees.” If the CSR says he doesn’t know…ask to talk to the manager. Check out this thread from fatwallet.
3. My Citi cards have no BT fees…sweeeettt.
4. I did BT with my Capital One card. There was a $50 max BT fee. I called back a week later with lines like “wait a minute..today when I check my online statement, there is a $50 fee…now I was told that there was no BT fee..what is going on?” ….you get what I am saying. I spoke to the manager and she took the fee off. This might work with Chase too. Again, if these methods offend you…haha…then you shouldn’t be here.

What about Credit Protector from those credit card companies? Tell them no, you are not interested when you first activated your card. However, once you are done with BT, you will have a lot of crappy cards with $100 or $500 credit limit that you keep open. Why not take advantage of the bonuses whenever you join credit protector such as this $100 gas card from citi from those those crappy cards.

Chase will send you a lot of $20 bonus for their Credit Protector too. Of course you only want to do this on your 0 balance crappy cards…get the bonus, cancel, then recycle the process. For other cards such as AmEx or BOA, call them up and again..use carrot lines such as “hey, what’s credit protector? Can you tell me more? Citi is offering $100 bonus..do you offer the same?” ..etc.

Credit Protector simply means they will pay your monthly payment whenever you lose your job or moving to a new house. If you are moving to a new house or lose a job in the middle of the year during your app-o-rama, you can make serious money by actually signing up for credit protector in advance with your 20K balance card. I will talk about more on another day about how to take advantage of this program.

An equal important factor during your app-o-rama year is to keep calling them about increasing your credit line with your current cards. Of course you always want them to increase without doing a hard pull. Make sure you stated that clearly every time you call them. Some cards such as AmEx and Citi will let you do it online without doing a hard pull. More info on that here. You want to do this every other month on all your cards because you want higher credit limit overall to subdue your debt amount, hence more 0% offers will come in for next year app-o-rama.

On the side note, I hope you have enjoy my App-o-Rama Part 1 through 5. I want to thank all the true hustlers on Fatwallet. I’m sure there are many different ways to do this, hence always read read read…research research research. I will continue to update this App-O-Rama. Feel free to add your 2 cents.

Peace out, I’m ricccccchhhhhhhhhhhhh Biatch!

{ 6 comments }

This Series has been updated: Check out Guide to HustlerMoneyBlog Part 4.

How is the app-o-rama going? You got a few instant approvals and a few deferments? Don’t worry..you just gotta sit back and wait for them to approve you. It should take no more than two weeks for all the cards to come in. In the meantime, set up a system on how to manage the cards. Again, do an excel spreadsheet and keep all your cards separated from bonus $$ to 0% APR. Write down the fees and such with Balance Transfer, no annual fees, or the amount of time of 0% APR.

Since I don’t know what cards you have, I will talk about what I did with my credit cards. I had about 10 Chase cards approved. Of course, I called and activated the cards immediately. Spoke to the CSR about any bonuses I got, such as with the Sony Chase Card, if so, I do the first purchase to get the $100 bonus, then pay it off immediately. You don’t have to wait for the first statement, so you just need to set a paybill account online with your online banking. Now, I got three cards with 0% APR for 12 months with $75 max BT fee. I called up my Chase Rewards card, and one by one, I asked to transfer the Credit Limit from my other Chase Cards to this Chase Rewards Mastercard. It went from 5K limit to 25K credit limit.

Why do I want to do this?

• Instead of 5 BT fees, I have only one.
• You want to keep up with as little as possible with the amount of cards you are Balance Transferring.

It is a good idea because you can extend your 0% BT from 12 months to 24 months. How? 0% APR balance transfer time is not activated until you actual initiate the balance transfer. For example, say you got your card in January with 0% apr…this means that you can wait till December of 2007 and do Balance Transfer then. My point is this:

1. Do BT with one card with the combine credit limit.
2. At the 11th month, pay off all your balance.
3. Call your other 0% APR Chase card, and transfer the credit limit from your used up 0% apr card to your “new” one.
4. Ask for a balance transfer check and deposit it into your 5% interest earning bank account.
5. Hence, your new 12 months 0% apr cycle starts again.

**Important** Don’t ever close any credit cards ever! When you are transfering credit limit to your 0% APR card, you want to leave the crappy cards open with the lowest minimum they will allow you.

About the utilization of % with credit limit, you need to understand how much credit limit you have. My rule of thumb is no more than 90% of credit limit on any individual card. Overall, you want to use less than 70% of your credit limit all together. You want your debt-ratio to be less than 70% so your credit score would not be hurt as much and that new credit offers will come in at the time of your next app-o-rama.

Your credit score will take a big hit at first after all the App-O-Rama. When you do BT, it will even take a bigger hit since now you got debt. Don’t worry, now that you credit line is so big..and by the end of your BT payoff, your credit score will go even higher, hence you can recycle the App-O-Rama again next year with even a bigger credit line. It is also a good idea to check your credit report once a quarter at annualcreditreport.com

Another issue, how to get money through BT?

1. Call them and ask for a BT check.
2. If they won’t and you have a Citi card, you can BT to your 0 balance citi card. The amount will show up on your Citi account as negative balance. Call Citi or log on to your account to request a refund check.

Come back in a couple of days about setup and management with all your credit cards, how to increase your credit limit, make more $$ though their credit protector, and hustle your ways out of Balance Transfer fees.

{ 4 comments }

This Series has been updates: The Definitive Guide to Hustlermoneyblog Part 3 

A few recent comments recommend to only apply around twenty cards due to some rejections. Although I feel that would be a fine route, I feel the best way to go if you have good credit is to apply at a minimum 50 credit cards. Why do I feel this way? Lets take Chase credit cards for example. They do not limit you to the amount of cards you can get. Say you only get around 3 or 4 Chase cards with 0% APR BT for 12 months and you got approve to say 15 Chase Cards. You want to Transfer Credit from all the crappy Chase cards to your Chase 0% apr card by calling CSR. Hence, this will increase your credit limit on your 0% APR Chase Cards three-or fourfold. This mega App-O-Rama would be best to hit them in a short time frame, preferably on a weekday from 8-12AM. However some issuers will only limit you to a few cards. Who are they?

• Citi Cards: Allow 2 main cards every 60 days, however you can apply to these Co-Brand-Name Citi cards also: Good list of Citi Cards

• Discover Cards: 2-3 Limit

Here are the no limit ones, although they will catch on quick:

• American Express: No Limit

• Chase Cards: No Limit

• Bank of America: No Limit

• Capital One: Not sure

Here is a good list from fatwallet:

Card———————– Bonus ——————— BT Offer
Chase SonyStyle———— $150 ———————- 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here
Citi Simplicity Rewards—- $100 ———————- 0% for 12 months with no fee apply here
Citi Professional SM——- $150+$40 cardoffers ——- 0% for 12 months with no fee apply here
Chase Cash Plus Rewards—- $100 ———————- 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here
Citi AT&T Universal——– $50+$30 cardoffers ——– 0% for 12 months with no fee apply here
BofA Money Return———- $30 cardoffers ———— 0% for 6 months with no fee apply here
BofA Worldpoints———– $75 ———————– 0% for 12 months with 3% fee apply here
Discover Miles————- $75+$40 cardoffers ——– 0% for 12 months with no fee apply here
AMEX Starwood*————- $100+$40 cardoffers ——- No BT offer apply here
PNC Platinum Rewards——- $50———————— 0% for 12 months with no fee apply here
BofA Rewards AMEX———- $50 ———————– 0% for 12 months with 3% fee apply here
Chase Priority Club**—— $120 ———————- No BT offer apply here
AMEX Blue—————— $50 ———————– No BT Offer (0% upto 15 months on purchases) apply here
GE Money Platinum———- $0 ———————— 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here
Capital One Platinum——- $0 ———————— 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here
Citi Diamond Preferred—– $50+$30 from cardoffers—- 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here
Krogers 1-2-3 Rewards—— $0 ———————— 0% for 12 months with $60 fee apply here
HSBC GM Flexible———– $35 from cardoffers——– 0% for 12 months with $75 fee apply here
First National Rewards—– $50 ———————– 0% for 9 months with $75 fee apply here

I would recommend apply to all the cash reward cards from cardoffers.com, again, you must be a member. I estimate that you should get at least $500 cash bonus from cardoffers alone. Yes, double dipping from them and the Credit cards company.
How to apply for business cards if you don’t have a business? Easy, I’m pretty sure you have sold something on Ebay. That would make you a sole-proprietorship. Make sure you put your name as your business name and your social security # as your tax id number. Here is a good list of business cards.

Business credit cards are great because they do not go on your credit report. You can BT to the max and not worry about debt-credit limit ratio.

If you have a home, it might be a good idea to apply some Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) loans. Why? Because this is just like a credit card. You don’t have to spend it, and some has 0% Apr intro offers with no fees. Worst scenario, this will increase your credit limit overall, hence making your debt-ratio lower when you do balance transfer later on those 0% APR credit cards.
Any application tips you wonder? Well, tell the truth about employment and housing information, but reach for the sky when ask about financial household income. If you are a college student, your household income should be your mom, dad, brothers and sisters + any “relative” that lives with you combine. When ask if you want to balance transfer now on the application, I would delay this because you want to see what you can get first from the same issuer and later to combine credit limit on one card for Balance Transfer. Now go apply with your roboform, and come back a couple days later for more info on what to do next.

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This Series has been updated: The Definitive Guide to Hustlermoneyblog Part 2.  

Have you done your homework? I hope so. Again, I am no expert at this. Please do so at your own risk. You must read read read………research research research. Lets hustle….

Some basic terms:

• Balance Transfer(BT) – this is not cash advance, this is where you ask the credit company to send or write you a check for the amount you want. You can then deposit the check into your bank account. You can also transfer the amount you want to another credit card.
• Customer Service Representative (CSR)- this is the person you talk to when you call the 1-800- number in the back of your credit card. By talking to them, you can ask for an increase in credit limit, solve any issues, and make deals with them.
• Credit Limit Increase(CLI)- this is where you call the CSR to increase your credit limit. The higher the better.
• Credit Score (CS)- everybody in this country got a credit score. It determines if and how much you can get with credit cards offers.
• Credit Transfer (CT) – say you have an old Chase credit card, and now you just got a new Chase credit card with 0 % Apr…You can ask the CSR to transfer the credit from your old card to your new card in order to get more money out of Balance Transfer.
• APR – simply means interest per year.
• Hard Pull (HP) – this is a pull done by Credit card company to see your credit score..every time they do this, your credit score will go down.
• Soft Pull(SP)- Check your credit history, but do not hurt your credit score.

Alright, now that you have done your research. You ready to get started. You want to apply bunch of cards? woooww easy there…Slow your roll playa… do these things below first:

• Sign up one of those sites such as freecreditreport.com , get your credit report, fix whatever you need to fix such as correct current address, and mistakes you need to correct…do it now. Then cancel your service before the 30 days trial is over.
• Gather all your current credit cards together…call each one of them from the 1-800 number in the back of your card, ask the CSR to increase your credit limit WITHOUT DOING A HARD PULL…that’s very important that you ask the CSR to do that..say that you are willing to do a soft pull only for the credit limit increase. The reason you want higher credit limit so later on your debt-ratio will be lower.
• Go download this program call Roboform , this is really really helpful because it will allow you to put in information, and with one click, your credit card application will be filled up. Simply reduce your time when filling up to 100 credit cards in one day.
• Open a bank account with at least 5% APR if you haven’t done so. If you want a brick and mortar one, try Wamu or Citibank, if you don’t mind online banking, try these ones…all are free with $1 minimum to open…IGO 5.3% or Amtrust Direct 5.3% . If you are like me, I do banking with Presidential with a Checking of 4.5% and Savings of 5.25%. You must have direct deposit with presidential and 5K to open savings.
• Now go do some research and make a list of credit cards you want..it would be a good idea to make an excel spreadsheet. I help you get started. Check out this list, this list, , check out cardoffers.com, i have some too under credit categories, and go check fatwallet AOR thread….again, your first priority should be the cards with 0% 12 months apr on Balance Transfer. Make sure the BT fees are cap or free.
• Make another list with bonus money for first purchase, especially the free $100 ones. Sign up to be a member of cardoffers.com because there are reward cards that you get bonus money through them, hence double dipping. Also, you can apply for business cards. Make that list too. Don’t worry about not having a business, I will show you how later. Try to shoot for the minimum of 50 cards listed you want to apply for. now Go Google!
• If you have a home with equity, check out those HELOC offers..why? because you want your credit limit to be as high as possible.
• Do not apply yet! You want to take a few more days preparing with your game plan and strategy, ask questions, do more reading and research.

Come back tomorrow for App-O-Rama Part 3.

{ 3 comments }

This Series has been updated. The Definitive Guide to HustlerMoneyBlog Part 1.

Here is the first part of App-O-Rama: Yes, I have done this!
App-O-Rama means to apply for many many, possible up to 100, credit cards at one time(meaning in one day) in order to fool Credit cards company to give you all the offers.

1. Why? To make $$$$$$$$ lots and lots of $$$$$$$
2. How? Many cards have sign-on bonuses such as Cash, Credit, free miles, free ipods, but the main one is to do Balance Transfer(borrow money at 0% Apr and put it into a 5% Savings account).
3. Who should do this? You should do this if your credit score is above 650 and you are not buying a home within a year.
4. How much do you make a year from doing this? I estimate to be around minimum $3K a year if you do this right, and it can be recycled every year.
5. What are the bad things about App-O-Rama? It will screw your credit score for a little while. Car insurance rate may be higher or your interest rate loan on a new car may be higher.

That is pretty much the quick summary. Now, I will go into details. First I need you to spend a couple of days reading this thread by the Grand White Collar Hustler himself SiS from fatwallet. Check out all the details and personal App-O-Ramas on the thread. The man SiS is truly a legend on that board, and yes, he is the one who coined the term App-O-Rama. I want you to be familiar with some of the terms about App-O-Rama such as Balance Transfer(BT), AOR, Credit Limit Increase (CLI), Credit Transfer (CT), Customer Service Rep. (CSR)…go read first and be familiar, then come back for tomorrow edition of App-O-Rama Part 2.

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