What should we apply for?

[Anonymous]

Step dad is making jokes about how "into this whole credit thing" I am.

He is the generation of "just pay your bills and dont get credit you dont need".

I love him to pieces for that! 

So he had me pul his FICO and reports, because he was curious where he stands.

So, 724 adv. FICO, 1 mort with 8k left, no car loan, 1 credit card (Chase Slate) with 3k limit @77% utilization. Eeep.

He was going to pay the card off, but he asked me if I knew of any way to do a Balance Transfer to get points for a trip somewhere

I told him I didnt think it works that way- I think it needs to be "new xx amount of $$" charged to the card. But hey, I could be wrong.

He works part time @25k a year, and is self employed with his side work (contractor for movie studios- model maker). So, income and high utilzation at the moment. 

He wants a great travel rewards- what should he apply for? I took him through the chase prequal site, and Freedom came up, and underneath was CSP, so... 

My thought was a Southwest Card, or Alaska Air (since he loves going to Hawaii)

Other than that, maybe a Barclays (I dont think he would get the Arrival +, but maybe just the Arrival)\

I think he may do a spree, as there are 1/0/0 (YES- I KNOW) inquiries on his report. He doesnt need credit, but he may just get a couple nice lines so he can travel a bit more with my mom.

What do you think? 

[coldnmn]

If he got his utilization down under 10% his chances would be good for any card he wants. With a low apr and a good CL. With high utilization not so much in my opinion. If he pays it down make sure that it reports to all three credit bureaus. Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

He is prequalified for Chase and for Cit- the TYP and the DC, so we are going to see what we see.

Will report back!