Application Spree Advice - PLOC, CCs, CLIs & Car Loan

[jjlv]

After over a year of renovations that went over budget and way passed the deadline, we are finally refinanced out of the loan. I had locked in a 4% rate that expired in December so had to hustle and get unique to make it look finished and be able to refinance. We also put a 3.29% HELOC and drew down the entire ~180k to pay down maxed out credit cards and other debt. My credit is not as good as my DH, which is why the mortgage and HELOC are under his name only. DH's scores jumped from low 700s to >800 when the HELOC and CC pmts posted. Since we are not exactly finished with renovations and still have more debt to pay off (we didn't want to use all the cash to pay it), we want the following:

1. $100k First Republic Personal Line of Credit

2. 2 or more 0% credit cards with >$20k+ starting credit each. WF has 21m 0% and pulls EQ, BofA has 21m 0% and pulls EX.  

3. Credit card with good points - Chase Sapphire Reserved 

4. CLI's on all our cards

5. $30k car loan with MCU (best rate of 3.04% is offered to FICO scores >720)

I'm looking for advice on strategy for applications and under whom (me or my DH) we should put the new accounts under. Note that after all these applications, we won't apply for more credit for 1-2 years (hopefully). We want to increase our borrowing power as much as possible. 

DH Profile: (from 3B report on myfico.com)

FICO 8: 814 EQ, 826 TU, 810 EX 

FICO Auto Score 8: 813 EQ, 859 TU, 822 EX (Auto Score 9 and 5, 4, 2 are similar)
FICO Bankcard Score 8: 818 EQ, 855 TU, 829 EX (all the other bankscores are the same)

Revolving Utilization: 1% (weird because the HELOC is 100% utilized and reporting on the report)

Number of Recent Inquiries: 3 EQ, 2 TU, 4 EX

Total inquiries: On the report, it shows 10 inquries from Credco in Apr, June, Nov, Oct, when we were shopping around for refinancing and it kept getting pushed out because renovations kept being delayed. 1 from Greensky in Sept  when we were desperate and attempted to get a greensky construction loan to pay for more material sto make the renovation go faster - we were denied this loan. 

AAofA: 9Y EQ, 9Y 6M TU, 9Y 7M EX

Revolving Accounts: 9 EQ, 7 TU, 7 EX

Installment Loans: 16, 17, 19

Bank Issued CC Accounts: 5, 5, 5

Accounts:

• CNB Heloc $180k 100% utilization, opened 12/2022
• CNB Mortgage $1.3M, opened 12/2022
• PenFed Auto Loan $43k opened 5/2021
• Student Loans: $100k
• Amex CC $30k, $404 balance, 1% utilization
• Discover CC $16k limit, $231 balance, 1% Utilization 
• Chase CC $600 limit, $0 Balance
• Capital One / Saks CC $4k limit, $0 balance

 My Profile:

I'm not going to list everything out because I'm probably not going to qualify for the CCs and want to know if i should put the auto loan under my name. 722 FICO score 8 at each CRA. MCU uses EX score for auto loans, which my auto score 8 is 707, Auto 9 is 690, and Auto 5,4,2 is 687. I have 1 CC CO that was paid off in 2020 and should drop off this year. I also have a CO from Verizon for $420 that was paid in full in 2020 (ugh - this was preventable but i didn't realize i had a remaining bill after i switched service providers). I have 4 new accounts because I got desperate when renovating and started opening credit cards that were low limits (ugh). My Credit Card FICO is now 720 at EX but the new acounts likely won't make me eligible for high balance CCs right now. 

What is the best way to go about these apps? here is what I'm thinking:

Option 1: Put auto loan under my name so it doesn't encumber my husband. I might not get the best rate, but it will be second tier and not so terrible.  DH applies for the FRB LOC then the 0% CCs (WF & BofA) then the chase card and ask for CLIs across all his cards. 

Option 2: Auto loan under both me and DH (to get best rate and for me to build credit), DH applies for FRB LOC, then 0% cards, then chase card, then CLIs.

Any other strategy suggestions are welcomed and appreciated!!

[Citylights18]

I can tell from the profile there must be high income for the OP and if you can pull of what you've done so far you should be able to line up some PLOCs. With the PLOCs its a bank to bank thing. One bank might look at that 180k HELOC and say its intimidating to offer more credit to someone that leverage than another would be perfectly fine with it. Ideally you'll want to try to go for an interest only PLOC. I only have to pay $60 of interest a month on 10,000 with it. You could even make payments to the HELOC from it because its connected to the bank account which could ease your cash flow short term.

The tactic of you picking up the autoloan exclusively while you're partner focuses in on the PLOCs I think is a good one be that installment loan is going to instantly improve your credit mix which is a big factor in scores. Over 6 months time it will help push you over 740. It will also take the burden off him on applications without a new account and increase his DTI when he's trying to go for LOCs.

Chase has that 5/24 rule so with all the inquiries he has you may want to also apply for that one also. As to the 0% APR cards you might want to go to AMEX for higher limits. Their cards are generally only 12 months but you could be looking at SL of 25,000 which then after 12 months you can balance transfer to a 21 month 0% APR card. AMEX also allows you to combine card limits where a lot of these other card issuers are going to be reluctant to do so. You could get a new card with 25,000 SL and then move your existing AMEX CL of 30k over there to create one mega card with a 55,000 CL. $500 will have to stay on the exsisting AMEX I believe else the remainder of the 30k can be moved over there.

[jjlv]

Thanks 

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@Citylights18 wrote:

Chase has that 5/24 rule so with all the inquiries he has you may want to also apply for that one also. As to the 0% APR cards you might want to go to AMEX for higher limits. Their cards are generally only 12 months but you could be looking at SL of 25,000 which then after 12 months you can balance transfer to a 21 month 0% APR card. AMEX also allows you to combine card limits where a lot of these other card issuers are going to be reluctant to do so. You could get a new card with 25,000 SL and then move your existing AMEX CL of 30k over there to create one mega card with a 55,000 CL. $500 will have to stay on the exsisting AMEX I believe else the remainder of the 30k can be moved over there.

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Thanks so much for this advice. I didn't realize you could consolidate CLs to create a mega card. I also didn't even think about the strategy of opening 0% Amex for the higher CL then moving to 21 month 0% after 12 months! What a great strategy. 

does it matter if we apply to CCs before the PLOC? Or should we definitely apply for the PLOC before CCs? 

what does 5/24 mean? We can hold off with chase for a few months if it's unlikely he will be approved. 

I just want to maximize our limits as much as possible so we don't ever get into a situation like we were in last few months of renovation (trying to get credit anywhere we could but couldn't get approved bc we were maxed out). 

[jjlv]

Update:

FRB said DH will unlikely get approved for a PLOC because of the fully drawn HELOC and because he has a Key Bank personal loan of $20,000 which they consider an unsecured line of credit. They said if I had cashed out refinanced into one first mortgage of $1.48M instead of refinanced 1.3M + 180k HELOC, it would've looked better. I tried arguing that the first mortgage is an interest-only loan and essentially the same thing as an IO HELOC except the latter is floating rate. I also explained that the personal loan was originated when DH was a resident physician and had an original principal balance of $40,000 as compared to current $20k (30 months left on the repayment). Despite the high income, high assets, and excellent credit scores, we were denied for the 3rd time by FRB. (First time was when DH graduated residency and applied for student loan refi- they said he didn't have enough $$ saved for his income level. 2nd time was another attempt at student loan refi a few years later and they denied bc of CC balances). 

auto loan update: MCU approved me for their best rate of 3.04% for 60 months or 3.84% for 84 months! I didn't need DH to co-sign with me to get the best rate despite my experian auto score being 707. 

next step is to apply for the 0% CCs - which we will do Amex and WF first. Then prob wait for chase CCs 

[jjlv]

CL results of the CC Spree:
Amex 0%: $18k 

WF 0%:  $18k

BofA 0%: $19k

Barclays AA card: $30k 

Surprised that Amex didn't offer a higher limit.