New Credit Card Offer:

[LonghornXP]

Well I just got an offer on my Bank of America statement for my Advantage account. For one thing I've never seen anything this good before. It was fully pre-approved and all I have todo is sign and date it. Now that isn't unusual considering but what was unusual was that it had a 250 grand credit limit with a 0% fixed APR for 6 months and 2.9% fixed afterwords. That just seems way too good to turn down. Even my signature loads haven't been as good as this and they aren't bad in any way shape or form. I'm wondering if anyone else has got these before because I've never seen one that had that high a limit with 2.9% fixed APR.

The card from the picture in the offer is a dark black card that says Advantage Member Select on it. I've looked on the BOA website and can't find anything about this card and when I called BOA all they tell me is that this card can only be given and you can't apply for it.

 

[Ncc1701]

Holy crapola, pay off your mortgage now!!!!!!!

 

[Stargazer]

Thats what I say. Pay off the mortgage and all outstanding debts. Long-term CD's at the bank are paying a better rate than this. Five year cd's are 4.5% maybe even more now since they have been raising them lately.

 

[cdru]

Before getting two excited, what does the fine print say? What are the penalties if a payment is late? What does the APR balloon to if you miss a payment? What's the minimum payment? What is the annual fee? The rate is good, but if it instantly gets called in because your payment is late a day, what good is that? The spending limit is also more like an AmEx card, it's not preset. As long as you pay it off, they don't care. Of course if your purchase habits don't sit well with them, I bet they quickly reduce your available credit.


A bank is in the business to make money. They can make more money by loaning that $250,000 to someone for a house @3.0+% with probably less risk then they can on your credit card at 2.9% unless there is a catch.

 

[Stargazer]

If its too good to be true then it probably is. Could be a very high annual fee.

 

[korsjs]

when i saw the title, i thought this was spam until i saw who posted it. i know some credit cards will give you a real good deal after you have been with them ten plus years, but i have never seen anything that good.

 

[LonghornXP]

I've read the fine print and it seems standard. To give you an idea this is what I have with this company.

1 Regular Savings Account with 14 grand.
1 Mortgage that has 113 grand left to pay with my house going for about 700 grand.
1 checking account with about 40 grand in it.
2 credit cards with perfect payment history with 100% payoff every single month.
1 Escrow savings account with around 300 grand in it.

The more I think about this I'm a very low risk and maybe they would rather I paid 2.9% interest on any amount compared to paying nothing now because I pay my cards off every month. But hell even my existing credit cards have a 100 grand limit each as it is. I'm still thinking about it because I'm not sure I need it because what good is 2.9% when I've never paid interest on a credit card.

I'm only in this shape because I paid for a waterfront house that has gone up almost 600 grand in the last 10 or so years.

With all that said above I'm just very lucky with timing because without the house the way I spend money I would be so bad off. But again maybe my spending habits would change if my situation changed. I just can't believe that my house has gone up over three times the price I paid for it. That is most likely why I have fiber as well. But I would never move because the sh*t they are building for for about 500 grand are just ummm sh*t is the only word I can use. Small, no land and no waterfront.

 

[Ncc1701]

Uhhh.... I Dont think its wise to disclose your personal finances on idtheftguys.us

 

[TuxCoder]

But he's so proud of it all, and just couldn't resist it...

 

[cdru]

With all that said above I'm just very lucky with timing because without the house the way I spend money I would be so bad off.

Apparently you aren't too bad off with 54k in more or less liquid savings and another 300k in escrow. My take on it is that if you already have two cards with a 100k limit, and you pay them off on a monthly basis, why do you need another card unless you are looking to consolidate your accounts. Remember, too much credit can be a negative, and it's just one more thing to keep track of. With identity theft on the rise, if you don't need it, don't get it.

 

[LonghornXP]

Uhhh.... I Dont think its wise to disclose your personal finances on idtheftguys.us

Nothing specific here and don't forget I do work directly with the government or they work with me I'm not sure which way. That means I can fix ID theft the easy way. Also what most people don't know is that most ID theft isn't done online but from people throwing away paper statements and such. Less than 5 percent of ID theft occurs or starts on the internet.

 

[LonghornXP]

But he's so proud of it all, and just couldn't resist it...

I'm not that proud and I only gave this info to show just how much timing can be between being broke and very well off. Also luck helps as well who would have thought this area would start reaching silicon valley. With all that said I do enjoy having money so I can buy every day the NY Steamer sub at Firehouse Subs. That damn sub ends up being my meal on a daily basis but at least when I die at an early age it would have been worth it.

If anyone had one of those subs you know what I'm talking about. I tend to go 10 days in a row at Firehouse with 100 bucks less in my wallet.

 

[LonghornXP]

Apparently you aren't too bad off with 54k in more or less liquid savings and another 300k in escrow. My take on it is that if you already have two cards with a 100k limit, and you pay them off on a monthly basis, why do you need another card unless you are looking to consolidate your accounts. Remember, too much credit can be a negative, and it's just one more thing to keep track of. With identity theft on the rise, if you don't need it, don't get it.

That is exactly why I'm thinking I won't take the offer. The funny thing is that people don't know how much they could hurt themselves by using an online site like Lending Tree. What they don't understand is that 4 banks are doing credit checks on you so you have 4 checks which hurt credit. Now if your denied you now have 4 denials instead of 1. Now factor in that if you did have a check and got approved and didn't accept one of the four offers because it wasn't good enough your credit would be hurt again for refusal. People don't know that when you apply for a loan and get approved and don't accept the loan you could be hurt just as much if not more than being denied.

Oh and the figures in my previous posts don't count both my pension and 401K plans.

 

[hancox]

Before the "pay your mortgage off" guys come in...

What's the minimum payment % age?

 

[cdru]

That is exactly why I'm thinking I won't take the offer. The funny thing is that people don't know how much they could hurt themselves by using an online site like Lending Tree. What they don't understand is that 4 banks are doing credit checks on you so you have 4 checks which hurt credit. Now if your denied you now have 4 denials instead of 1.

Now factor in that if you did have a check and got approved and didn't accept one of the four offers because it wasn't good enough your credit would be hurt again for refusal. People don't know that when you apply for a loan and get approved and don't accept the loan you could be hurt just as much if not more than being denied.

Incorrect. Multiple auto or mortgage/home equity loans within a 45-day period count as just a single check on your account. This comes from Fair Isaac, the people who calculate your FICO credit score. Visiting and applying at a site like Lending Tree at the same time that you are applying elsewhere within that 45-day window will have absolutely no impact on your credit score or ability to get credit. I know when I got my first mortgage 4 years ago all that was questioned with my mortgage broker was what the enquiries were for. Between my wife and I, we had something like 18 inquiries. 4 each at Lending Tree for each of us, plus we applied at the bank her dad worked at and they ran each of us through all three of their subsidiaries for 6 more checks. Add in a couple more for the broker we had. And it wasn't an issue.

Credit checks for purposes of employment, personal inquiries, "pre-approval" checks, lenders rechecking for an existing account, and ALL auto/mortgage enquiries made within 30 days of you applying elsewhere all do not count against your score.

What you say though for other types of credit holds true though. Store cards, credit cards, personal lones, etc all can add up; each check can normally subtract no more then 5 points from your score, but often it subtracts 0. Too many and it becomes a negative factor. A few though are not negative. Besides, the number of inquiries is a very small portion of the overall score, less then 10%.

 

[LonghornXP]

Before the "pay your mortgage off" guys come in...

What's the minimum payment % age?

I'm assuming your talking about my credit cards and not my mortgage for an obvious reason.

Credit cards have minimum payment of 2% of balance but both of my cards will allow me to miss three payments in a row with the fourth missed payment resulting in a late payment charge. Now I've never had a missed payment or late for that matter regardless whether it would hurt me or not but its nice having this in there just in case say the USPS has a lost shipment or the bank puts it aside without knowing it.

Oh and the reason my mortgage isn't paid off was because I paid it off before with the profits on my place and bought another smaller place up north along with a few other properties in Pasco as both investments. I would pay it off but having escrow available plus owning other properties gives me many options if things turn south. I could live up north with a paid off place, I could sell my place up north, I could rent my place up north or down south or both, I could sell my place down south and a ton of other things as well. Now that would take my current house dropping 500+ grand in value and I don't see this ever occuring at least in my lifetime and if it did the whole country would be in a shithole so it wouldn't make one bit of f**king difference now would it.

 

[LonghornXP]

Incorrect. Multiple auto or mortgage/home equity loans within a 45-day period count as just a single check on your account. This comes from Fair Isaac, the people who calculate your FICO credit score. Visiting and applying at a site like Lending Tree at the same time that you are applying elsewhere within that 45-day window will have absolutely no impact on your credit score or ability to get credit. I know when I got my first mortgage 4 years ago all that was questioned with my mortgage broker was what the enquiries were for. Between my wife and I, we had something like 18 inquiries. 4 each at Lending Tree for each of us, plus we applied at the bank her dad worked at and they ran each of us through all three of their subsidiaries for 6 more checks. Add in a couple more for the broker we had. And it wasn't an issue.

Credit checks for purposes of employment, personal inquiries, "pre-approval" checks, lenders rechecking for an existing account, and ALL auto/mortgage enquiries made within 30 days of you applying elsewhere all do not count against your score.

What you say though for other types of credit holds true though. Store cards, credit cards, personal lones, etc all can add up; each check can normally subtract no more then 5 points from your score, but often it subtracts 0. Too many and it becomes a negative factor. A few though are not negative. Besides, the number of inquiries is a very small portion of the overall score, less then 10%.

Thanks for posting this because I should have pointed out personal loans and the like which is what companies like Lending Tree get the most of. Like you said when dealing with a mortgage you have a 30 day buffer and the same with auto.

But again the average user just checking Lending Tree for a personal loan would actually be allowing all the banks involved to pull an inquiry which isn't good and this will greatly hurt a persons credit if they use more than one site like Lending Tree and check multiple times a year. I happen to know a person who within a 3 month period of time checked various types of loans on more than 10 different sites thinking they wouldn't do an actual check until he picked the loan he wanted. This person doesn't use the internet much and got sucked in and had his score drop from 643 all the way down to 497 just in six months time. I'm saying this because you can't think for a second that a person who doesn't know how the system works wouldn't do this.

Now I shouldn't have gone into detail here on this but my original quote was just to inform people reading this to beware of those sits for certain things.