Selling Tradelines / Piggybacking Part II: $1000+/hr, 20-40k/yr. Side Gig

[SubL stache]

How often can you ask for a limit increase?  Or should you?

[secondcor521]

How often can you ask for a limit increase?  Or should you?

As often as you like, although most cards will only increase limits every 3-6 months, and they usually like to have a good reason to increase your limit, like you using the card a lot, or your income going up.

Should you?  Well, it can increase your credit score somewhat if you care about that sort of thing.  Higher limits on older cards seem to sell well in terms of piggybacking.  Also, New Company pays higher commissions for higher limits.  If you had a card that was on the borderline of a higher commission, you'd want to consider the tradeoff of a higher commission to you vs. the higher cost to and thus possibly lower demand by the AU.

[SubL stache]

Thanks.

I have a card from 2005 with a 14k limit.  Just increases from 7k limit today, but I didn't think about there being a sweet spot.

Has anyone noticed a what range that threshold may exist at?

[kpd905]

With the old company, I have a Discover card at $9500.  I have always had my four spots full on that card because it is the cheapest rate for buyers at <$10k limit.  I'd try to get right under the next pay threshold.

So $14,999, $19,999, $29,999, or $39,999.

[TomTX]

How often can you ask for a limit increase?  Or should you?

Depends hugely on the issuer. Do some online research on your bank. Discover will consider an increase every 2 months, and it's a basic online form. Other banks are 6 months and want an inquisition. They all vary.

Last August when I found out about this, my old Discover was $3,600 CL. Initial increases were pretty big, but tapered off and I seem stuck at $11,000 now. I am putting more charges through the card and I'll try again at the end of July.

[SubL stache]

Good point.  I have a Chase card.

From the sounds of kpd905 I'm going to leave it at 14k while I test the demand levels.

[boarder42]

got an add from the new site on a 1 year old card. 

[MasterStache]

got an add from the new site on a 1 year old card.

Another DP. I just got an add on a card that's about 15 months old. Very High CL though.

[Belief10]

Has anyone tried selling these things on their own? I'm just thinking Craiglist, Facebook, etc. Probably could get close to the $600-800 range per trade and cut out the middle man. Especially if it's a matter of meeting someone in person in the city both parties reside in, that would seem pretty low risk to me...

[boarder42]

Has anyone tried selling these things on their own? I'm just thinking Craiglist, Facebook, etc. Probably could get close to the $600-800 range per trade and cut out the middle man. Especially if it's a matter of meeting someone in person in the city both parties reside in, that would seem pretty low risk to me...

you need to do a lot of research the worst thing you can do is add a fake identity to your credit card then you're part of a fraudulent transaction and will be flagged by the FBI.  so if you can do all your own due diligence then maybe it would work alright. but i like the piece of mind of a middle man.   

[HawkRider]

2) Sell the lines yourself. If you can find (and verify) AUs, you can make way more than the cut you're getting here, plus get sales, rather than none.

What rate would one be able to get independently?  Double?

I have contacted the new company multiple times, with a couple of apologies for being busy, or silence, as the answer.

For the original company, I had one sale in February and just now two for June.  It was a nice surprise and I am glad I left the card there.

[MasterStache]

Has anyone tried selling these things on their own? I'm just thinking Craiglist, Facebook, etc. Probably could get close to the $600-800 range per trade and cut out the middle man. Especially if it's a matter of meeting someone in person in the city both parties reside in, that would seem pretty low risk to me...

you need to do a lot of research the worst thing you can do is add a fake identity to your credit card then you're part of a fraudulent transaction and will be flagged by the FBI.  so if you can do all your own due diligence then maybe it would work alright. but i like the piece of mind of a middle man.

Yep! Certainly not worth the risk for me. YMMV

[Shade00]

No adds for June but so far have one lined up for July. I haven't removed the 2 AUs from my Discover yet but their 60 days ran out at the end of May, so I'll probably go ahead and remove them both soon, unless there's a compelling reason to leave them on.

[MasterStache]

No adds for June but so far have one lined up for July. I haven't removed the 2 AUs from my Discover yet but their 60 days ran out at the end of May, so I'll probably go ahead and remove them both soon, unless there's a compelling reason to leave them on.

I think it's 60 days minimum. But longer is actually better. It appears to the CC company that you aren't just cycling through AUs therefore, less chance of drawing suspicion. 

[Car Jack]

No adds for June but so far have one lined up for July. I haven't removed the 2 AUs from my Discover yet but their 60 days ran out at the end of May, so I'll probably go ahead and remove them both soon, unless there's a compelling reason to leave them on.

You still could get a June ad.  I just got one for my Discover which doesn't close till the 19th.  Makes sense because my citi that's been getting AUs is already past for June.  If a buyer comes in today, they probably want a closing date that's in the next week so they'll show up on the upcoming reporting cycle.  My cap one closes on the 25th and I see no reason why someone would not potentially pick that in the next few days.  They wouldn't pick my citi because they'd have to wait for 4 weeks for it to report.

[Shade00]

No adds for June but so far have one lined up for July. I haven't removed the 2 AUs from my Discover yet but their 60 days ran out at the end of May, so I'll probably go ahead and remove them both soon, unless there's a compelling reason to leave them on.

You still could get a June ad.  I just got one for my Discover which doesn't close till the 19th.  Makes sense because my citi that's been getting AUs is already past for June.  If a buyer comes in today, they probably want a closing date that's in the next week so they'll show up on the upcoming reporting cycle.  My cap one closes on the 25th and I see no reason why someone would not potentially pick that in the next few days.  They wouldn't pick my citi because they'd have to wait for 4 weeks for it to report.

It's too late for a June add for my Discover card due to the closing date. Looking at the grid June is no longer available. That's fine because like the poster above you mentioned, I'd like to avoid cycling AUs too quickly.

[katsiki]

FWIW, I think they want 75 days, not 60.  I asked when to remove my first AU with the new co.  The reply was I would get notified at 75 days.

[doublethinkmoney]

Following to research later!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Shade00]

FWIW, I think they want 75 days, not 60.  I asked when to remove my first AU with the new co.  The reply was I would get notified at 75 days.

Interesting. I just calculated and I'm at days 79 and 82, respectively, and no notification.

[LifestyleDeflation]

Question for you ARS- you mentioned that you don't keep your physical cards with you since you're on the road. Do you mind sharing what your monthly purchases on the cards are to keep a balance? Do you have enough recurring bills to have one on each card?

I only use the cards when I get an AU.

I charge $2.50 to the card to reload my Amazon gift card balance.

I have this bookmarked:
https://smile.amazon.com/asv/reload/order?manualReload.amount=2.50

And all my cards in Amazon. I just click that, login, and select the card that got the AU, and hit "reload balance."  Total clicks: 4 (bookmark, login button, select cc, reload button).

If I don't have a sale on a card in a given month, I don't use it.  I just make sure it has a balance when I add the AU, so it closes with a statement balance to help it report to the AU's account.

Do you mind if I ask what kind of stuff you spend your amazon gift card on as a nomad? I'm in a similar situation and have never bought stuff from Amazon on the road.

[arebelspy]

Do you mind if I ask what kind of stuff you spend your amazon gift card on as a nomad? I'm in a similar situation and have never bought stuff from Amazon on the road.

It's a low enough amount (maybe 10/mo--since one $2.50 charge covers all the AUs on that card that month) that I just let it build, then maybe once or twice a year buy some stuff we need and ship it to family who will be visiting.

Mostly got baby stuff, though recently stuff for our RV (water filters, for example).

[MasterStache]

Do you mind if I ask what kind of stuff you spend your amazon gift card on as a nomad? I'm in a similar situation and have never bought stuff from Amazon on the road.

It's a low enough amount (maybe 10/mo--since one $2.50 charge covers all the AUs on that card that month) that I just let it build, then maybe once or twice a year buy some stuff we need and ship it to family who will be visiting.

Mostly got baby stuff, though recently stuff for our RV (water filters, for example).

Totally off topic but are you blogging somewhere about your upcoming RV adventures? I somewhat remember you discussing getting an RV back before you were FIRE. I enjoy reading about folks RV adventures. Something we are thinking about doing in the future.

[LifestyleDeflation]

Do you mind if I ask what kind of stuff you spend your amazon gift card on as a nomad? I'm in a similar situation and have never bought stuff from Amazon on the road.

It's a low enough amount (maybe 10/mo--since one $2.50 charge covers all the AUs on that card that month) that I just let it build, then maybe once or twice a year buy some stuff we need and ship it to family who will be visiting.

Mostly got baby stuff, though recently stuff for our RV (water filters, for example).

Cool- thanks!

[fat-johnny]

I registered two card back in late January:

• Barclay Mastercard, 2 years old, $20.5k limit
• Discover, 3 years old, $10.5k limit

They have not contacted me at all to add an AU to either of these cards......so I have made no money.

Any advice?  Or do I just wait it out and hope they sell one of my slots soon?
FJ

[solon]

I registered two card back in late January:

• Barclay Mastercard, 2 years old, $20.5k limit
• Discover, 3 years old, $10.5k limit

They have not contacted me at all to add an AU to either of these cards......so I have made no money.

Any advice?  Or do I just wait it out and hope they sell one of my slots soon?
FJ

My card that I've seen sales on is 7 years old. Maybe buyers like older cards?

[MasterStache]

I registered two card back in late January:

• Barclay Mastercard, 2 years old, $20.5k limit
• Discover, 3 years old, $10.5k limit

They have not contacted me at all to add an AU to either of these cards......so I have made no money.

Any advice?  Or do I just wait it out and hope they sell one of my slots soon?
FJ

Not really anything you can do. I am sure they are flooded with cards. Just don't get your expectations or hopes up. If you get a sale on occasion then just be happy. That's kind of the way I look at it. 

[TomTX]

I registered two card back in late January:

• Barclay Mastercard, 2 years old, $20.5k limit
• Discover, 3 years old, $10.5k limit

They have not contacted me at all to add an AU to either of these cards......so I have made no money.

Any advice?  Or do I just wait it out and hope they sell one of my slots soon?
FJ

My card that I've seen sales on is 7 years old. Maybe buyers like older cards?

My oldest is over 20 years, no bites in 6 cycles.

[solon]

I registered two card back in late January:

• Barclay Mastercard, 2 years old, $20.5k limit
• Discover, 3 years old, $10.5k limit

They have not contacted me at all to add an AU to either of these cards......so I have made no money.

Any advice?  Or do I just wait it out and hope they sell one of my slots soon?
FJ

My card that I've seen sales on is 7 years old. Maybe buyers like older cards?

My oldest is over 20 years, no bites in 6 cycles.

Maybe it's too old. Maybe it's on the other side of the sweet spot?

[SubL stache]

My wife added me as an AU on her old Chase card so I could do the work to get this tradeline thing going.

Unfortunately I found out that the tradeline company doesn't use Chase cards because they don't report right or something....

But I just checked creditkarma and my credit age went from avg. 2 years to avg. 6 yrs by adding wifes 11 yr old card and my score went from 753 to 809.  So it seems I have piggybacked her credit just fine with only the addition of a Chase AU slot.

What am I missing?

[arebelspy]

My wife added me as an AU on her old Chase card so I could do the work to get this tradeline thing going.

Unfortunately I found out that the tradeline company doesn't use Chase cards because they don't report right or something....

But I just checked creditkarma and my credit age went from avg. 2 years to avg. 6 yrs by adding wifes 11 yr old card and my score went from 753 to 809.  So it seems I have piggybacked her credit just fine with only the addition of a Chase AU slot.

What am I missing?

Chase does work, but not alone; it needs to be paired with another card to work correctly.

Your address already matches hers, so it reports fine.

Normally Chase won't report correctly on its own, but if you "pair" it with another card, which DOES report and has your address, Chase will match because of that address match now, and report fine.

Since you already have the address match, it works fine.

[RedwoodDreams]

Maybe they're just clamping down more, or the fact that I'm fairly consistently selling 3 Discover AU slots per month these days is triggering something...fingers crossed it isn't a sign of a coming card shutdown.

If you can, let me know if you get a new sale on your Discover and if it works out ok, or if you have problems.

I decided to be conservative and ask them to not sell any AU on that card currently. I will let it rest for one cycle. Probably was unnecessary, but I didn't want to deal with any hassle.

Canuck, reporting back: All three Discover sales posted just fine (old TL co.) so all is well in Discover-land, at least for now. $375. Nice.

[JL9berg13]

Clearly by my post number I'm the new kid, but I do have a question...

I've read about 5 of the 29 pages and didn't see anything mentioned about it so I'm guessing nobody has brought it up.  But the point of this, from the other person's perspective, is to be able to buy something, on your credit, that they wouldn't normally be able to buy (because they don't have the credit), right?

If that's the case, are we doing the right thing? I'm sure that some people need to build that credit (if that's in fact what's happening, which I haven't confirmed). But there are also some people for sure who aren't able to get that credit for a reason, and what we are doing in signing them up is allowing them to get in over their head from a debt standpoint. Right?

Admittedly, when I read the first post's "Q: Is this ethical? A: That depends..." part, I became instantly skeptical. 

But also, I think one of the tenets of MMM is to do things the right way, and not the get-rich-quick or get-rich-off-the-suckers way. 

Not trying to throw shade or be a wet blanket, but I'm looking for some clarity on what happens to the other guy (whoever he is).  Thanks.

e job here is to sign up people as authorized users on your credit so they can purchase things, right?

[tj]

e job here is to sign up people as authorized users on your credit so they can purchase things, right?

I can't think of many (any?) reason someone would spend the big bucks for an AU spot unless they wanted better terms on a loan.

[arebelspy]

Typically it's people stuck in the cycle of low/no credit, can't get credit to improve their credit. This gives them a jump start on improving their credit temporarily so they can get credit to improve it permanently.

Piggybacking doesn't work if their credit has recent lates; it's best for people with middling credit who need a boost to lower an interest rate (in which case it's worth it to them to pay 1k to save 80k over the life of their mortgage), or people with no credit wanting to jump start their life.  It won't help much people who have very low credit due to buying and not paying for things.

[MasterStache]

I'll throw in my own personal experience. I completely destroyed my credit as an idiotic teenager. I ran up multiple credit cards I couldn't pay off and a car loan that ended up with a repossessed car. I entered the military after deciding I had enough. I had no car, no money, no job and shitty credit so I couldn't even get a small loan for a car. In the midst of trying to build my credit back up I had to pay a down payment on a cell phone and denied the true job I wanted in the Air Force (said my credit was too shitty). It took 3 years before I finally was able to qualify for a car loan. My interest rate was something like 13%. It sucked. I made every payment on time and even paid the car off early. I really REALLY could have used a credit repair type of service like this had I known they existed. It would have saved me a ton of money.

I know each person and situation is different. I might have a slight bias towards trying to help some folks like younger me ( :

[monarda]

Thank you, beginnerstache!

I really wonder about the humans behind my 5 tradeline sales I've had so far.

[JL9berg13]

Thanks arebelspy and Bstache for the replies.

[CanuckExpat]

I don't think about it from an ethical standpoint, but as a form of an arbitrage opportunity (abusing the term arbitrage slightly).

Say I had an 18 year old child and I added them as an authorized user solely for the purpose of increasing their credit score, and then destroyed their card as soon is it arrived. Would anyone really think anything of it? You would probably be lauded for doing it.

There are other people who want their credit scores increased, and don't have someone who is willing or able to do it for them, but they would pay good money for an increased credit score.

It's roughly analogous to having two different markets with price discrepancies. Selling your tradeline is exploiting the price difference between those two markets. Generally, people believe arbitrage should be encouraged, as it contributes to market efficiency. Which I guess in this case would be pricing the two markets to be equivalent, or shutting down the mechanism of moving between the two (adding as authorized users).

I don't think those ideas are fully formed, but there you have my two cents

[DavidAnnArbor]

Someone who audits mortgages said that he often pulls up credit reports that bars authorized user credit lines from appearing on the credit report. So I don't think all credit reports are created equal. Car lenders might not be as strict about the credit report as compared to home mortgage lenders.

[dragoncar]

Credit Sesame just sent me a message saying there was a "paid tradeline" alert on my account.  I was like, shit, they make a note of suspicious activity on my credit report now?  But now, when I logged in it just said "Congratulations! A creditor has reported that you recently paid one of your accounts down to $0."  Well yeah I do that every month.

[MasterStache]

Credit Sesame just sent me a message saying there was a "paid tradeline" alert on my account.  I was like, shit, they make a note of suspicious activity on my credit report now?  But now, when I logged in it just said "Congratulations! A creditor has reported that you recently paid one of your accounts down to $0."  Well yeah I do that every month.

Huh, weird I got a similar message for the first time ever. Guess I can expect to get a lot more of those.

[arebelspy]

Credit Sesame just sent me a message saying there was a "paid tradeline" alert on my account.  I was like, shit, they make a note of suspicious activity on my credit report now?  But now, when I logged in it just said "Congratulations! A creditor has reported that you recently paid one of your accounts down to $0."  Well yeah I do that every month.

Huh, weird I got a similar message for the first time ever. Guess I can expect to get a lot more of those.

That sounds like something new credit sesame decided to implement.

It has nothing to do with authorized user tradelines.

Seems annoying if you get it every time you pay a CC to zero--that should happen every month.

[katsiki]

It is fairly new and yes, it is annoying!  :)

[arebelspy]

On the plus side, any card you sell tradelines on, you won't get this message, as it'll have a tiny charge on it. ;)

[MasterStache]

Mine originated from Credit Karma. And yes it will get annoying if they send them out every time I pay off my balance. 

[dragoncar]

Credit Sesame just sent me a message saying there was a "paid tradeline" alert on my account.  I was like, shit, they make a note of suspicious activity on my credit report now?  But now, when I logged in it just said "Congratulations! A creditor has reported that you recently paid one of your accounts down to $0."  Well yeah I do that every month.

Huh, weird I got a similar message for the first time ever. Guess I can expect to get a lot more of those.

That sounds like something new credit sesame decided to implement.

It has nothing to do with authorized user tradelines.

Seems annoying if you get it every time you pay a CC to zero--that should happen every month.

CreditSesame seems pretty desparate for me to log in.  They are always sending me BS messages like "There's a 65% chance your credit score has changed!" and so forth.  I guess it's just below my threshold for unsubscribing, but these new alerts will probably be the last straw.  I rarely even use CreditSesame because CreditKarma is so much better (more detailed information, two credit bureaus).  Between CK and the free annual credit reports, I feel like I'm covered for finding fraudulent accounts.

edit: ok, I just realized I've been getting almost 1 email per day from CS.  This really started in the last 1-2 months.  In March it was still a healthy 11 emails.  To be fair, it's easy to unsubscribe so I'm not sure why I didn't... I guess they boiled my frog.

[Shade00]

I got the text and email this morning to add a new AU to my Discover. Just logged in and went through the process. Got to the final screen for AU submitted and it said look here for the decision on your add, but there was no decision - and the new AU add isn't showing up in the Manage AU section. Has this happened to anyone else? I don't want to get ahead of myself and try to add them again.

[CanuckExpat]

I got the text and email this morning to add a new AU to my Discover. Just logged in and went through the process. Got to the final screen for AU submitted and it said look here for the decision on your add, but there was no decision - and the new AU add isn't showing up in the Manage AU section. Has this happened to anyone else? I don't want to get ahead of myself and try to add them again.

This sounds similar to what RedwoodDreams and I have been encountering with Discover. So far works out in end, but looks like some kind of increased monitoring or auditing?:
Report
Update

[Shade00]

I got the text and email this morning to add a new AU to my Discover. Just logged in and went through the process. Got to the final screen for AU submitted and it said look here for the decision on your add, but there was no decision - and the new AU add isn't showing up in the Manage AU section. Has this happened to anyone else? I don't want to get ahead of myself and try to add them again.

This sounds similar to what RedwoodDreams have been encountering with Discover. So far works out in end, but looks like some kind of increased monitoring or auditing?:
Report
Update

Thank you for the link - that does sound exactly like it. I'll chat with them and then cross my fingers that I can get it approved in time.

UPDATE: I chatted through the online portal and asked for status. The first agent transferred me to their "specialty team," who told me they could review the application right then. They asked for my DOB and then took a minute or two before telling me the application was approved. The AU is now on my account. Seems like online chat is the way to go if you have this issue.

[dragoncar]

I honestly think it's better to give it a day or two before chatting.  Sending you to the "specialty team" seem s like it would raise flags after you do it a few times