Great graph! This is what people wonder, of course. My high watermark is $85k mostly due to some enormous grants near the end of the growth cycle, like one was thirty grand, wtf? What the hell are they thinking with offerings like that? Freaking hilarious that you came out with a higher FICO. I hate how everyone's talking fees now. Just not the same.

This is really amazing how you do this. I have been looking for opportunities like this in Canada but can't seem to find them. If anyone knows let me know...

MM: I don't really understand how you suddenly get these huge credit card balances, going from 25k to 60k in a few months, do you go on crazy shopping binges? :)

Creative Investor, by getting a few new cards and doing balance transfer to my credit union's card ... I can transfer excess balance from my credit union's credit card to my checking account free of charge.

MM: Thanks for the response. The numbers are still mind-boggling to me :) But I commend you on making money from this. By the way, I think it's been a while since you talked about your Prosper.com activity, has anything improved on that front? I was disappointed to hear from you and a few other sources about high defaults rates and lack of the secondary markets for loans.

Oh My God, that is a big credit and you are really a hard worker, that is how a person can repay that.

Oh My God, that is a big credit and you are really a hard worker, that is how a person can repay that.

I've just started doing that with credit cards. It's a bit nervewracking at first, but the "free" money you can make is really amazing.

ted - How do you get around the balance transfer fee (typically 3% of balance transfer)? MM does it via his credit union card - how do you?

MM, I have been flowing your blog for more than a year now, Love all the posting,

I have the same question as Matel, I am not clear about how you get around the 3%-5% balance transfer fees, I am also getting many balance transfer offers for 0%, and I have no balances in my CC, so how do you start doing this?

DoubleD

That's a huge drop! Don't make the mistake of thinking of credit being for cosmetic purposes only - auto insurance companies are now looking at your credit to determine rates etc

DoubleD - A lot of the cards have a "max fee" of $50-$75, which is how you get around the 3-5% terms.

If you're really interested in credit arbitrage, you should check out www.mycreditstrategy.com

They have all the answers to those kind of questions in the FAQ section.

How do you get your credit score? Have you signed-up for a yearly service? All places charge to get a credit score? Isn't it?

That is a great graph. I wish I was in that boat with you.

If you have a Credit card with WaMu you get your Credit score fro free from TransUnion, I use to have a CC from Provedian and they got bough by WaMu and WaMu is offering this service.

Hey I really like the graph of yours. Do you use a chart program?

I'm trying to get into the App-O-rama myself...sort of bummed that interest rates have dropped and will probably drop further. It's going to cut into my potential savings interest earned.
-Raymond

Thanks for sharing your data.

I have $200k from 0% cards at this point in time.

My score went from 796 to 643 with $164k debt. Now after 5 months I'm up to 762 with around $145k.

Very sad the Fed are lowering interest rates.

Way to go MM! (:thumbsup:)

For the posters wondering how to avoid the fees, that is typical of new credit lines.

I've done some of the same (only I didn't track it like MM did. I believe I made about $4,200 over the past 2 years doing what MM did with already existing cards (and paying the maximum balance transfer fees).

We recently bought an investment property (at a significant savings ... meaning we paid less than half of what it appraised for). And as a result, my credit score has gone down to the 640 range for the first time in over 5 years! :(
However our net worth has grown by more than $80,000 due to this transaction (and borrowing all the money to purchase and completely rehab the place).

I have been reading your blog for a while now. As far as 0% goes, I think I have done slightly better. How about $175,000 for last seven years with MBNA (now Bank of America) at 0-1.9% APR. Between me and my wife, we have 11 Bank of America cards (some were MBNA that got converted to B of A). I call ech one of them individually (up to their retention department) and get between 0-1.9% for 6 to 12 months (success rate is about 25%). Once they offer a nice B/T APR, I then have them move most of my credit limit to that one card. That means now I have one card with over 100,000 limit with 0-1.99% B/T APR and other ten with $500 credit limit. Last year I made over 10K in high yield accounts. Hope this post helps. There are plenty of other tricks that I can share (however, card companies are also getting smarter :)

CreditGuru,
So how do you get it above a certain amount. They won't raise our CC limit above $34,000 (well, OK I only asked for $1,000 more about 6 months prior to having it raised by $2,500). I guess time may tell.
I'll have to try it again this month. Although they may not do it because they just lent me $40k on an investment property :)

Excellent work with the balance accruals! I wish I had the diligence to replicate your work.

For your readers though, just be careful of the taxes you'll be hit with come April. That's probably the only pain with the higher-interest savings accounts ;)

I saw that you ended up with an even higher credit score than when you started! That is great, the icing on the cake.

Plus, you got over $3000 to do it!!