nothingtolose

The title "better off deadbeat" says it all. I suppose these days it pays to be one. The bravado some of these guys have is in sync with the times. Stick it to the greedy Wall St and them bottom feeders. Surely greed wasn't behind this poor guy's debts. Right.... There are people out there who genuinely fell on hard times and were victimized by debt collectors and creditors. FDCPA, FCRA and resources like CB exist to help them. This Craig guy just doesn't get my sympathies, sorry. It's not like the debt was incurred as a result of fraud/ID theft or illness or injury. He made risky bets, repeatedly, and spent beyond his means. Now he's gaming the system to avoid paying it and even turn a buck. What a real American hero. CNN should do a story about him.

Total CL will be somewhat lower but balances will still count towards overall util. Age factors into AAOA as long as closed accounts stay on reports.

Books Restaurants Movies Music good thread (FW) 5TYP/dollar $.625/TYP if redeemed for cash $.7 if redeemed for TY gift card (More TYPs now needed to redeem for SLRs) Still 3.5%/dollar spent in bonus categories. Of those, grandfathered Chase freedom (3%*1.25=3.75% back/dollar spent) covers restaurants and movie theatres/rentals, but not music or bookstores. So the ratios for Citi Forward look good for those two categories (music/bookstores) or also restaurants/movies if you do not have the grandfathered Freedom card.

Alliant CU works well enough as an online bank. A bunch of ATMs in its surcharge-free network too (non-Alliant ATMs that do not assess a fee to Alliant account holders).

It's all about the rewards... Always! +1

IMHO flag for an audit This part, that you keep separate households, may require thorough documentation. "You paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the tax year."

Interesting article +1 H&R Block Deluxe (formerly TaxCut) offers "Audit support from a tax professional" when e-filed using their software. Maybe worth it for the peace of mind although with any kind of a complicated tax case or tax court appearance a CPA is probably going to cost $$$. The current HR Block Deluxe deal is 15% off download/online.

fair points - it would indeed depend on other reasons for a relationship with HSBC I forgot about FETF. (I've used Schwab IC for 0% FETF. The added bonus is that it refunds domestic ATM fees.)

The rules are flexible. They most likely had PP. I agree it makes little sense to have an ISP hard pull. Freeze CRAs to prevent gratuitous hard pulls. Note: existing creditors can still hard pull but many will not force through a hard pull when a freeze in place.

where's my tinfoil? I think I'll pass.

I meant, I am not sure how much HSBC will say the Kindle is worth. MSRP can be $100 bucks over the Amazon price.

Not sure how they value it.I recall the same issue with a Keybank Garmin offer. Fees and minimums The offer asks for funding with $50,000 and gives 90 days to fund to $100,000, to be kept there for 6 months. Loss: $100,000*(2%-1.35%)3/12+$50,000*(2%-1.35%)3/12. Even with the free Kindle after taxes, it's a net loss unless you are already tied up with their CDs/brokerage. Haven't dealt with their brokerage but their davings/CD APYs haven't been competitive in a while.

You may be subject to an obligation to disclose. Even if it's off your CRs, a thorough background check will fish it out. Depending on what you're applying for, there are adverse consequences for failure to disclose. This is not legal advice. U4 form http://www.finra.org/web/groups/industry/@...ocs/p015112.pdf U4 form instructions http://www.finra.org/web/groups/industry/@...ocs/p015111.pdf 14K (1) "Within the past 10 years: (1) have you made a compromise with creditors, filed a bankruptcy petition or been the subject of an involuntary bankruptcy petition?"

For FIA, I have thought about asking for a CLI but decided not to. The new CL will not be reported (VS) and there have been a couple of posts about CL reductions on other BOA cards (that do report CL) to grant FIA CLI. That only applies to the VS version of the FIA cards and YMMV on the reductions. My other BOA cards report CL and IME so far CLIs were approved. Lately CLI requests are not instant, but still soft pulls only. So far so good.

+1 after you're 30 days late some creditors will agree to hardship plans that reduce APR to a lower fixed rate for a couple of years I don't have specific advice but kudos for thinking about it early in the process and good luck!