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.
I agree w/ HeJustLaughs. I recently did a AOR… applied about 20 or so cc. I have excellent credit score but unable to get say more than 15K per card. In some cases I get approve but low credit lines due to other revolving cc.
Ant, I don’t think 100 cc applications is a good idea. There are horror stories on fatwallet about issuers freaking out after discovering you have so many lines open and them closing some lines off. 20-30 spread over different issuers seems like a more reasonable number.
I suggest to those that can’t get more than $20,000 in credit lines to go after sign-up bonuses in your AOR rather than free interest money. 20k = approx $1,000 at 5%. If you can only attain $5k in interest free money, that’s only $250, not worth your time IMHO. You can easily get $250 in sign-up bonuses.
If you’re going after the interest free money, another reason to bump up your current lines (in addition to the debt ratio as you mentioned) is that new credit lines will likely match your current lines or more.
I plan to do a AOR in june. I call all my cc issuers every month looking for a free increase with a hard pull. Too bad the excuse “holiday shopping” won’t work anymore.
-HeJustLaughs