TL;DR: I have two cards I primarily use - Disco Cash Back, and CSP. I've been letting my Disco statement post a low balance, then BT my CSP balance over to Disco on special terms from them so my CSP posts a low balance - then paying off the transferred amount to Disco before the next statement - is this a bad idea?
Still getting used to all of the intricacies of working within the credit realm. Have been working on boosting my credit as quickly and efficiently as I can, while still using cards for daily life - demonstrating use, while not wanting to come off as "credit seeking" so far as new applications, or come off as a risky user for any certain actions.
To start: Have raised my FICO 8 from 591 to 720 within a 4 month span of time. Paid off card balances, took out a personal loan to pay down a card (diversifying my types of credit, and reducing utilization on the card to 0%), acquired new credit in the form of CSP and Cap1 VentureOne. All of this means, ultimately, 3 new lines of credit within the last 4 months - 2 revolving, and 1 installment.
First I want to start off - If this is breaking any rules, or seen as against the TOS of the forums, I apologize ahead of time - not my intention, and will delete. But:
With Discover, I've had a BT offer for the last 2 months that I've used twice. Namely - I would charge most of my charges on my CSP, let my low balance on my Discover card post a statement, then transfer nearly all/most of the debt acquired from CSP to Discover after acquiring a Disco CLI (I've received 3 CLIs from Discover over the last 2 months amounting to ~$4700 CLI up to $7600). I do this because my BT offers from Disco are something like: 0% APR for 12 months with a 3% transfer fee, or 6% APR for 18 months with a $0 transfer fee. So, I've been transferring over my CSP balance to Disco utilizing the 6%/$0 transfer fee, letting my CSP then post a low statement (with my Disco card previously posting a low statement - despite my then, afterwards, transferring over a significant dollar amount from CSP) showing in my credit report, two low statements from each - and thereby keeping my credit report UTL low and scores higher.
After CSP posts a low statement, I then go back to charging on the CSP as my daily driver, and pay off the entirety of my Disco card (which reports first) - therefore not paying the $0 transfer fee, nor worrying about the 6% APR - before the next Disco statement posts. Doing so keeps my reported UTL low, even though I'm technically in some ways carrying a balance, with a small fee tacked on.
My main goal here has been to raise my score, keep it consistently raised, and now garden. I've been making larger purchases on my CSP recently as I'm buying inventory for a quick e-commerce business I had started recently and want to both accumulate Sapphire Reward points and demonstrate high use to potentially prompt an auto-CLI, but A) Don't yet want any additional inquiries as would be required to get a business CC due to recent accounts opened, and b) have been transferring over the CSP balance to my Disco card after paying it almost entirely off (leaving a small number above $0 shown - keeping total UTL below 10%) after it posts a statement. Additionally - I know, supposed to keep business and personal expenses separate, but I'll ensure to have my accountant work out the 3-5 transactions that have occurred to ensure I stay in compliance so far as LLC/not mixing personal/reducing likelihood of piercing the corporate veil were I to ever find myself in such an unfortunate position down the line
Today, however, I was reading about a certain type of account activity that can get your accounts closed as they're concerned you're establishing a good credit/foundational base -- only to acquire more cards, run up all your accounts all at once, and disappear. This is absolutely not my plan or intention, but I went down the checklist and saw that it could potentially be seen as such. No car payment, no mortgage. Number of newly opened accounts. Can't remember the name of the specific scenario this could be flagged for, but it typically resulted in having accounts/cards closed.
My question is: I now have 4/6months EX, 1/6 TU, 1/6 EQ inquiries. I've put a significant amount of money through the cards, but have PIF (so far as utilizing the grace period after statements post) and brought my credit UTL down close to 0%, from ~90% where it sat back in March. ~$27k total personal limit, ~$45k limit when including AU accounts. On my reports, it shows close to 0% UTL - through essentially playing with this balance transfer-after-Disco-post strategy - when in actuality, I have probably about ~$4k that is transferred over to Disco each month the last 2 months. I've used this BT strategy with Disco twice, the last two months, and was considering using it again for what would be the last time - this month. After that the business will be solvent as I have inventory, and extremely high demand already waiting for the product - just waiting for final packaging. I would then no longer be engaging in that strategy, as I'd no longer need to in order to demonstrate low UTL in CR as I would just be paying everything off, rather than using the BT strategy.
Now - I wanted to ask. I know there are a lot of very conservative/risk averse members here with far more knowledge and experience than I do, and I know there are more moderate/credit seeking members here that are a bit more aggressive when it comes to app sprees, etc.
Does this seem like a way to get myself flagged; and more importantly, past being flagged, does this seem like activity that may get an account shut down?
So far as Chase is concerned, they see me charging balances to the card - and "paying it off" by transfering to Disco; and so far as Disco is concerned, they see me accepting BT from my CSP, but then paying all of that off before the statement hits. But, all of it is done in a manner where it appears on my CR that I don't have much of a revolving balance - despite there being ~$4k transferred to Disco that just doesn't show. Have been balancing all of this based on statement post dates, an excel sheet I keep, and paycheck dates.
I'm currently AZEO before my Disco statement posts tomorrow (total UTL currently shown as 0.35%, but Disco will post a 7% UTL tomorrow) which when incorporating AZEO, jumped my scores significantly. I would really like to ensure I keep my scores rising, and don't want to post what would end up appearing as a 21% UTL only factoring in personal cards, and a ~13% UTL when including AU. I'm letting this month post statements across 3/5 cards at around 4-6% UTL, if I use this strategy - and PIF before the end of the grace periods on each, ultimately carrying no balance so far as interest accumulation.
But all-in-all - thoughts? Is this incredibly dumb? Is it smart? Will this look poorly to both Chase and Disco, who will have then both seen 3 large-ish BT posts 3 months in a row after Disco statement post? Especially when factoring in 4 EX inqs, 2 new revolving accounts and 1 new installment account, over the last four months? (Then factoring in COVID and the apprehension credit issuers have?) Humbly asking opinions here. Again - reiterating $150k base salary, which justifies the charges going through. Just trying to get limits raised to ensure that, if/when I do need to let a balance revolve for a month or two, I can still do my best to at least stay under 15% UTL reported down the line. But, just trying to do what I can to keep my score rising - and not fall below 700.
Other than that, no derogs at all other than 2 30days late that posted 48+ months (4 years) ago.
