Korey G. Case Study: $135,777 Across Eight Products (2026)

2. The file, as published

This case study uses the record Stacking Capital publishes on its public results page. We read it on November 2, 2026. We add arithmetic and outside sources. We do not add facts the record does not contain. This record is short, so there is a lot it does not say, and we list those gaps in section 14.

Two lines in that table carry most of the weight. The first is the starting point. A 0% period that is running out with nothing behind it is a cash-flow problem with a date on it. The second is what is missing. There is no timeline, so we cannot tell you how long the round took, which month it started, or whether it was one round or more. If you see a case study that gives you a tidy number of days, check where the days came from.

This file is also not in the firm's reconciled case file behind the site's work pages, which holds Andrew, Brandy, Menard, Frank, Erwin, Dr. Truong and Robbie. We checked that Korey's rows add to $135,777. We could not check them against a second internal record. We say so up front because a number you cannot cross-check is a number to hold a little loosely.

3. The stack, row by row

Here is every row, with each one's share of the total. Percentages are rounded to one decimal, so they add to 100.1%.

Add the column by hand. $39,777 plus $21,000 is $60,777. Add $18,000 for $78,777. Add $16,000 for $94,777. Add $15,000 for $109,777. Add $10,000 for $119,777. Add $8,000 twice for $135,777. The rows reconcile.

Now the labels. The page uses short names, and some of them can be matched to a published product while others cannot.

• Chase Ink. The page does not say which Ink card. Chase's Ink Business Cash and Ink Business Unlimited both show a 0% intro APR for 12 months from account opening on purchases, then a variable APR of 16.99% to 24.99% (Chase). We use that as an illustration, not as a fact about Korey's card.
• Wells Fargo Signify. Wells Fargo's Signify Business Cash card shows 0% for 12 months from account opening, then 16.99% to 24.99% variable (Wells Fargo). Again, the page does not name the exact card.
• Wells Fargo BLOC. We read this as the Wells Fargo BusinessLine line of credit. The page does not spell it out. Our BusinessLine guide covers how that line works.
• US Bank Platinum. If this means the U.S. Bank Business Platinum Card, note that NerdWallet reports U.S. Bank dropped that card and added the Business Shield in February 2026, and calls the Platinum "no longer available" (NerdWallet). Because the record has no dates, we cannot say whether Korey's approval came before that change.
• BofA Red, BofA Gray, BofA Blue. We could not match these three labels to a published Bank of America product. They may be internal shorthand.
• Lightstream. This is a loan, not a card. More on it in section 7.

4. Five institutions, one total

Group the same rows by institution and the file looks different.

Four of the five institutions are Tier 1 issuers in the Bankable Blueprint™: Chase, U.S. Bank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Together they account for $96,000, which is 70.7% of the file. The fifth institution, Lightstream, is not a Tier 1 issuer. American Express, the fifth Tier 1 name, does not appear on the page. The record does not say why. It could be a choice, a decline or a timing question, and we will not guess.

Two features of that table matter for the owner. The first is concentration. Wells Fargo and Bank of America together hold $65,000, or 47.9% of the file. That is not a problem by itself. It does mean that how those two banks read your file moves almost half of your result. Our article on how issuers re-read your file after approval explains why that matters long after the approval email.

The second is count. Eight products at five institutions is about 1.6 products per institution. Compare that with Umer K., who held twelve cards at five institutions, or 2.4 each. Neither is better. They are different files, and a bank sees what you ask for, not a score for how many you could have asked for.

5. Two kinds of money

The page labels five rows "0%" and three rows "rate set by the institution." That splits the file into two kinds of money.

Check it. $21,000 plus $18,000 plus $16,000 plus $10,000 plus $8,000 is $73,000. $39,777 plus $15,000 plus $8,000 is $62,777. The two add to $135,777.

Why does the split matter? Because "access to $135,777" and "$135,777 at 0%" are not the same sentence. On the firm's own reconciled files, the mix varies a lot. Menard's record shows $159,500 at 0% out of $249,500, which is 63.9%. Umer's shows 93.1%. Korey's is 53.8%. A file with a bigger non-0% share carries more cost from day one, and that cost has to fit the monthly cash.

The bank-line rows and the loan rows are also different tools from the cards. A card with a 0% window is a time-limited loan with a cliff at the end. A line is a standing facility. A loan is a fixed schedule. The sections that follow take them in order.

6. What the 0% half costs each month

The brand rule is simple. 0% does not mean zero monthly payment. A balance carried on a 0% card still needs a payment of about 1% to 1.5% of the balance each month. That is the general mechanic, and each card's own terms set the real minimum.

For a year that is $8,760 to $13,140. That is the cash that has to leave the business, or the owner, every month to keep the 0% windows from turning into something worse. It is not interest. It is principal and the cost of staying in good standing.

One more piece of the benefit stays in force here. The Tier 1 issuers do not report ongoing business card balances to your personal credit file. Nav notes that American Express and Chase may report default or negative information, so a missed payment is not a private matter (Nav). Autopay for at least the minimum is the cheapest insurance in this file.

7. The other $62,777

Three rows carry no 0% label: the Lightstream loan ($39,777), the Wells Fargo BLOC ($15,000) and BofA Blue ($8,000). They behave differently from the cards, so take them one at a time.

The Lightstream loan: $39,777

This is the largest row, at 29.3% of the file, and it is the one that needs the most care. Lightstream, which lends through Truist Bank, describes its product as a fixed-rate, simple-interest, fully amortizing installment loan with no fees or prepayment penalties, from $5,000 to $100,000 (LightStream). Its sign-in page says the maximum APR is 25.44%.

Then the restrictions. LightStream's FAQ says loans are made to individuals for personal use, not to businesses. It says you may not use loan proceeds for business purposes. It says funding and payments need to go to and from a personal bank account, and that you must use the proceeds for the loan purpose you selected on the application (LightStream).

The firm's page counts the Lightstream loan in the total, and the record does not say what Korey used it for. We do not guess. Here is what the rule means for any owner. A personal loan is personal credit. It goes on the personal file. Its payment comes out of a personal account. If you tell a lender the money is for one purpose and use it for another, you are on the wrong side of the loan terms. Read your lender's terms before you plan a business stack around a personal loan, and talk to a lawyer if the use is unclear. We are not a lender, and we cannot read your loan contract for you.

Now the owner's dollars. The record gives no rate or term. These are hypothetical payments for a $39,777 fixed-rate loan, not Korey's terms.

Look at the spread. At 10%, stretching the same loan from 36 to 60 months cuts the monthly payment by $438.35, from $1,283.49 to $845.14, but adds $4,502.91 of interest. A longer term buys cash flow and costs money. Because the loan is a fixed schedule, the payment starts on day one and does not care how the 0% cards are doing.

The Wells Fargo BLOC: $15,000

We read "BLOC" as the Wells Fargo BusinessLine. Our BusinessLine guide reports a variable rate of Prime plus 1.75% to Prime plus 9.75%. With Prime at 7.00% on Wells Fargo's own October 30 table, that is 8.75% to 16.75%. On $15,000 drawn, that is $1,312.50 to $2,512.50 a year in interest, or $109.38 to $209.38 a month, before any principal. A line asks for a revenue number and financials, which is why our revenue and income boxes playbook matters here.

BofA Blue: $8,000

The page shows no rate for this row, and we could not match "Blue" to a published Bank of America product. All we can say is that the page does not mark it 0%. If you hold a product like it, find the rate in your own agreement before you plan around it.

8. The 12-month cliff

The record's key sentence is that Korey's 0% period was running out with nothing lined up behind it. That is the cliff every 0% stack has. Chase's Ink cards and the Wells Fargo Signify card each show 0% for 12 months from account opening, then a variable APR of 16.99% to 24.99% (links in section 3). Other issuers vary.

Take the whole $73,000 as an illustration. To clear it in 12 months, an owner would need to pay $6,083.33 a month ($73,000 divided by 12). In 15 months it is $4,866.67. Now compare that with paying only a 1% or 1.5% monthly payment.

This table is a simplification. Real minimums shrink with the balance, and only some of the rows in this file are Chase or Wells Fargo cards, so the other rates may differ. The point is not the exact number. The point is that minimum payments alone leave most of the balance standing at the end of the window, and the bill after the cliff is $850 to $1,340 a month in interest. A file that does not plan for that has not finished.

The way out has to be written before the first approval, not after the last. Our 0% exit plan shows how to match each end date to a payment, and our guide to the SBA term-out covers one longer-term path. A new round is another. The record does not tell us which route Korey took.

One more risk sits in the dates. If every card opened in the same few weeks, every window ends in the same few weeks. That is the trade-off of a same-day round. Same-day is the right way to apply, because it limits the inquiry damage. It also means the cliff arrives all at once, so the exit plan has to be sized for the whole stack, not one card at a time.

9. The $15,000 reference point

The record says a prior program had charged Korey $15,000. It does not say which program or what it delivered, and we do not judge it. We can still do arithmetic with the number, because every owner who is quoted a fee should run the same math.

• $15,000 is 11.0% of the $135,777 in this file.
• It is 20.5% of the $73,000 at 0%.
• It is the same dollar amount as the Wells Fargo BLOC row.

None of that says a fee is too high or too low. It says a fee has a size in the same units as the result, and you should compare them. Before you pay any program, ask five plain questions and get the answers in writing.

1. What exactly do you deliver, and who files the applications?
2. What is the plan for the end of each 0% window?
3. What happens if a bank says no?
4. What do I owe if the result is smaller than what you described?
5. Can I see the written terms before I pay?

Our own engagement is customized, and we do not post a fixed price here. Ask us the same five questions on a call. The Bankable Scan™ is where we start, because it reads the file the way a bank does before anyone applies.

10. How the file maps to the Blueprint

The Bankable Blueprint™ runs three same-day rounds. Round 1 is Month 3, with all five Tier 1 issuers on the same day and American Express first on the soft-pull path. Round 2 is Months 7 and 8, with four issuers, skipping Wells Fargo. Round 3 is Months 11 and 12, with all five again. See why Round 1 is same-day and waits until Month 3 and why Round 2 skips Wells Fargo.

The record does not say which month any of Korey's products came from, or whether they came from one round or several. We can say only this. The file holds two Wells Fargo products. Because Wells Fargo is skipped in Round 2, two Wells Fargo rows suggest the file touched Wells Fargo in a round where it is included. That is our inference, not a fact from the record.

Now the four Legs of Bankability.

• Leg 1, lender compliance. Banks read the paperwork before they read the application. A line such as the BLOC asks for revenue and financials, so the papers have to agree with each other.
• Leg 2, business credit scores. The file has a loan that runs on personal credit and cards and a line that read both the owner and the business.
• Leg 3, 10 to 15 trade lines. Trade lines support the file. They do not appear in the record, and we do not guess about them.
• Leg 4, financials. A line wants numbers that tie out. Our Leg 4 guide covers how.

A personal guarantee applies on the business products in this file. It applies until a business reaches $3 million or more in revenue with reserves and all four Legs in place. Any pitch that says an EIN alone is enough is a warning. Same file. Same banks. Different order. What changed for Korey, as the page tells it, is that someone built a plan before the applications went out and stayed with the file through the steps.

11. What to copy, and what not to

Copy

• Split the total into two numbers. Write how much is at 0% and how much is not. Korey's file is $73,000 and $62,777. Yours will differ, and the split tells you what the first month's cash looks like.
• Add the monthly minimums before you apply. At 1% to 1.5%, $73,000 of 0% balances is $730 to $1,095 a month, before the loan or the line.
• Write the exit before the approvals. The record's starting point was a window running out with nothing behind it. Do not start there.
• Know each product's rules. A personal loan has personal-use limits. A line has a revenue test. A card has an intro window. Read each one.
• Get the plan in writing. The record says a detailed plan came first. That is a habit you can copy for free.

Do not copy

• The product list. The U.S. Bank card named on the page may no longer be open to new applicants. Cards, rates and offers change, so build from what is open today.
• The total. Results vary by file. Nothing here predicts what a bank will offer you.
• The use of a personal loan. Do not move personal-loan money into a business without checking the lender's terms.

12. Five mistakes owners make

1. Treating the total as one number. Access of $135,777 and 0% on $135,777 are different files. Korey's is 53.8% at 0%.
2. Ignoring what a loan is for. If a lender says loans are for personal use only, a business plan built on it can break the loan terms.
3. No plan for the cliff. Flat minimum-style payments of $730 to $1,095 a month leave most of $73,000 standing after 12 months.
4. Stacking end dates in the same month. A same-day round is right for applications. It means one cliff, so size the exit for the whole stack.
5. Not asking what a fee delivers. A $15,000 fee is 11.0% of a $135,777 result. Ask what is delivered, in writing, before the number matters.

13. Questions owners ask

14. What we could not verify

This file is on the firm's public results page but not in the reconciled case file behind the site's work pages. We checked that the eight rows add to $135,777 and that the five 0% rows add to $73,000. We could not check it against a second internal record.

• When any of it happened. The record gives no dates, no timeline and no number of rounds.
• Which Chase Ink and Wells Fargo Signify cards were opened. The 12-month and 16.99% to 24.99% figures are Chase's and Wells Fargo's published terms on current Ink Business Cash, Ink Business Unlimited and Signify Business Cash cards, used only as illustrations.
• What "BofA Red," "BofA Gray" and "BofA Blue" are. We could not match them to published Bank of America products.
• Whether "US Bank Platinum" means the Business Platinum Card, and whether the approval came before U.S. Bank's February 2026 change that NerdWallet reports.
• That "Wells Fargo BLOC" is the BusinessLine. It is our reading.
• The rate, term and use of the Lightstream loan, and the rate on the Wells Fargo BLOC and on BofA Blue.
• Why American Express does not appear, and whether any bank said no.
• What the prior program delivered for its $15,000, and which program it was.
• Korey's revenue, entity structure, personal credit and cash flow.
• All payment, interest and balance-left figures in sections 6, 7 and 8 are illustrations. The 1% to 1.5% monthly payment range is a general mechanic, and each product's terms set the real minimum.
• Terms were read November 2, 2026 and can change without notice.

15. What this means for your file

You do not need Korey's list to use his lesson. You need a split, a monthly number and an exit.

1. Day 1 List every card, loan and line you hold or plan to open. Write the balance and the rate, or "0% until" and the end date.
2. Day 7 Split the list into two totals: at 0% and not at 0%. Write each as a dollar amount and a share.
3. Day 14 Compute the monthly cash at 1% and 1.5% on the 0% balances, plus the payments on the loans and the interest on the lines.
4. Day 30 Check each loan's use rules and each product's paperwork needs. Fix any mismatch before an application goes in.
5. Day 45 Write the exit for each 0% end date: pay down, term out, or a planned new round.
6. Day 60 Book the Bankable Blueprint Call and bring the one-page list.

Same file. Same banks. Different order. The Bankable Blueprint™ puts that order on paper for your file.

Book a Bankable Blueprint Call

Related reading, already on this site:

• Umer's $218,000 Case Study - twelve cards, five banks, one no.
• Menard's $249,500 Case Study - twelve products, with a verified record.
• Brandy's $222,000 Case Study - nine approvals.
• 0% Exit Plan - match each end date to a payment.
• The Bankable Scan Explained - how a bank reads your file.

16. Compliance

This article is educational. It describes a published client record and general planning methods. It is not credit, legal, tax, or financial advice, not a lending offer and not a promise of approval. Results vary by file, and past results do not predict yours. Stacking Capital is a 1:1 capital advisory. We are not a bank, a lender, or a broker.

Terms change. Product terms cited here come from the sources below as read on November 2, 2026, and can change without notice. Dollar examples are illustrations of arithmetic, not quotes or projections.

Approval is not guaranteed. A personal guarantee applies on the Tier 1 business credit products described in this article.

Sources: Stacking Capital, public results page; LightStream, FAQ; LightStream, about; Chase, Ink Business Cash; Wells Fargo, Signify Business Cash terms; Wells Fargo, Signify Business Cash agreement; NerdWallet, U.S. Bank business cards; Wise Bread, business cards with long 0% offers; Nav, business cards and personal credit.