About $20k in CC debt and a $5400 personal loan I was looking for cheaper options to pay this down. discover is my daily, the citi and bofa were my BT cards, and everything else are my emergency only. At the bottom are my current DP.
Inspired by some forum threads I discovered that I could request some CLI from discover, bofa, and citi with SP. On 12/02 via their respective websites I was instantly approved for +9k across all three (discover +500, citi +2500, bofa +6000). I also called barclay and was able to get an APR reduction from 27.99 to 22.99, not that I'll really use it though.
Rather than doing some more BT shuffling, I started shopping personal loans on 12/03. Looked into Marcus a couple months ago based on their mailings and was not impressed with the +13% APR offer.
Started the process with Prosper online. I was offered 36 months with $25k at 13.5%, but $20k at 10.99% looked better. Accepted the truth in lending disclosure. Was not instantly funded so I got disappointed given my success with CLI just the day before.
I joined a local credit union two months ago with the specific intention of a personal loan (they advertise 9% APR) and parked $8k cash in the savings account they make you open. Applied online and got a message about being notified with a decision within 7 days. Thoroughly disappointed I am tempted to close it and put the 8k back in my bofa checking. Hear terrible stories about bofa, but honestly have had a checking account since 1994 with no problems and they seem to be giving me some love with CLI on my rewards mc over the past two years.
Sofi sent me a couple pre-approval notices over the past year, so I tried online and was also denied because I did not meet the minimum score requirements? They listed my EX at 727.
Almost 24 hours later received an email from Prosper saying my loan was approved and funding is on its way within then next 1-4 business days. No requests for POI, additional documents, etc. From reading threads on this forum I am a little skeptical given it seems like most others are asked for something.
If I receive the funds I plan to pay off the discover, citi, citi personal loan, and take the year to pay down the bofa and/or roll it over to another BT or new card next year. I'll continue to use my discover as the daily and PIF every month. That is the plan unless there are some better suggestions.
Credit report is clean, AAoA > 7-8 years, 100% on time. Only had one HP from last year on EQ before I even applied for anything on 12/03.
TU >750, EQ >720, EX >720
discover 17.99 13500 /10866
citi 17.99 6400 /3345 (10.99% until 05/2020)
bofa 16.99 12500 /6000 (0% until 11/2019)
chase 19.99 2300 /0
thd 29.99 750 /0
merrick 29.99 3750 /0
barclay 22.99 5000 /0
citiloan 16.76 6500 /5415
toyota 4.99 15000 /3000
I hope this works out for you after checking with different places. Please update that you successfully got the funds deposited without issue.
Funds were depositied on two days after the email, no requests for any verification.
Lastly, given I'm going to take a hit for the HP, adding a new account, and closing the citi personal loan, should I close the merrick account now and take the hit for loss of AAoA and total CL? Should I wait 3 mos until I try another round of increases, then close? Or will the significant drop in utilization make up for all?
merrick is one of my oldest accounts, but they have been stingy with the auto CLI (>3 yrs) and have the highest APR (29.99). I would not mind as I do not really use, but they also refuse to drop the annual fee charged as $8 mo.
Thanks for the knowledge,
Chase Card /11 yrs, 1 mo
Merrick Bank /10 yrs, 7 mos
Dell Financial Services /6 yrs, 7 mos
Barclays Bank Delaware /5 yrs, 1 mo
Discover Financial Servi /4 yrs, 6 mos
The Home Depot/cbna /3 yrs, 9 mos
Citicards Cbna /2 yrs, 8 mos
Bank Of America /2 yrs, 3 mos
Toyota Motor Credit /4 yrs, 2 mos
Citibank, N.a. /1 yr, 3 mos
You can safely let Merrick go now. 
Still unhappy the credit union I joined specifically for this reason turned me down, I received their refusal letter today. They cited excessive unsecured debt to income yet pulled a 748 from EX. Funny how when I opened the account they offered me a $40k auto loan on the spot based on a SP. I suppose because it is backed by the vehicle.
Congrats OP
Closing your Merrick cc willn't affect you because it will stay on your reports for 10 years. If I was you if you can swing it. I would pay your citi personal loan down to 6 months left it will help you with your scores if you pay it off it will cost you some points due to 100% uti on your new personal loan
