Just a 46-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH).
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/how-to-make-money-from-0-apr-bala...
Yesterday was hectic, so waited to today to apply for cards. I figured I would just start with one and see how it goes. Citi has all the cards with no fees for balance transfers. No fees for anything - plus gift cards to boot.
So I applied for one in hubby's name. Didn't expect much since he has more cards opened than I, but they immediately approved a $6k credit line, which is okay, wouldn't want any less. Will also get $100 in Target gift cards. That alone will be worth it.
Since it wasn't the $10k-$20k I had hoped for and since they said right away what the credit line was, I applied for one in my name too. $5,900. Wha??? LOL. But this gives us a good $10k to invest in the bank, and a little left for minimum payments. I think minimum payments are 2%? I am not totally sure - says nowhere in the fine print I looked at so far,
Anyway, we'll get the cards in a couple of weeks, make 1 purchase each, and pay off the card, wait for the billing cycle to redeem the gift cards ($150 total between both cards). Then I think we should both call and try to up the credit lines. If one of us can get $12k or something, that would be even better! OR if one of us can, we can take advantage of one for a while, and take advantage of the other one later.
Interestingly, reading the fine print, they can change any of the terms any time, for any reason. Credit card companies - how do they get away with this stuff?????? For me means I don't want to waste my time on too small of an amount because one changed term can wipe out the profits. BUT at the same time, don't want to borrow too much for the same reason.
Anyway, for us, another $40/month in interest, would be great. & it looks like at the minimum that is what we will get. Woohoo. WIth our credit scores I am sure we can get some higher limits before we try the BT. So we'll wait it out a bit, if need be.
Well, step 1 is complete. Now we wait!
Yesterday was hectic, so waited to today to apply for cards. I figured I would just start with one and see how it goes. Citi has all the cards with no fees for balance transfers. No fees for anything - plus gift cards to boot.
So I applied for one in hubby's name. Didn't expect much since he has more cards opened than I, but they immediately approved a $6k credit line, which is okay, wouldn't want any less. Will also get $100 in Target gift cards. That alone will be worth it.
Since it wasn't the $10k-$20k I had hoped for and since they said right away what the credit line was, I applied for one in my name too. $5,900. Wha??? LOL. But this gives us a good $10k to invest in the bank, and a little left for minimum payments. I think minimum payments are 2%? I am not totally sure - says nowhere in the fine print I looked at so far,
Anyway, we'll get the cards in a couple of weeks, make 1 purchase each, and pay off the card, wait for the billing cycle to redeem the gift cards ($150 total between both cards). Then I think we should both call and try to up the credit lines. If one of us can get $12k or something, that would be even better! OR if one of us can, we can take advantage of one for a while, and take advantage of the other one later.
Interestingly, reading the fine print, they can change any of the terms any time, for any reason. Credit card companies - how do they get away with this stuff?????? For me means I don't want to waste my time on too small of an amount because one changed term can wipe out the profits. BUT at the same time, don't want to borrow too much for the same reason.
Anyway, for us, another $40/month in interest, would be great. & it looks like at the minimum that is what we will get. Woohoo. WIth our credit scores I am sure we can get some higher limits before we try the BT. So we'll wait it out a bit, if need be.
Well, step 1 is complete. Now we wait!