Chase Freedom - Pre-Approval

[Anonymous]

I was sent a pre-approval offer for 0% interest rate for 1 year.  I called and they took my application over the telephone.  The CSR told me it would be a "soft" inquiry on my credit report - which I believe that is not true.  Nonetheless, I was under the assumption that I would have an instant approval or something.  He just said that my application is under review and that I will receive a letter in the mail within 7-10 days.  I did not wish to be pushy and decided not to ask further questions. 

A. I thought that with pre-approval applicants would get an instant approval.  ????  I have the following scores FAKO EX 747 EQ 726 TU 623.  Both TU and EQ do not reflect that I paid both of my cards almost in full yet (9% utilization).  Started rebuilding a year ago and have two cards, BofA CL$900 and Premier CL $325.  Any thoughts, please?

B. Also, I wish to apply for a merchant card (dept store) such as Macy's, Nordstrom, Best Buy and Jared's.  Should I go on an app frenzy in order to have these inquiries out of the way in a year?

Thanks for your comments!  :-)

[cdtotten]

Your pre-approval letter did not guarentee any type of instant approval. It was merely a letter sent to you because you met certain criteria they were seeking when they sent those out in bulk. A soft inquiry was performed in order to pre-qualify you, but the application for new credit will always result in a hard inquiry. They were not obligated to approve you. Hopefully the card gets issued.

You have very low limits on your cards, and one of the determining factors in the credit limit a new card will issue is what you currently have been granted. If Chase does ultimately approve you, it will probably be for a very low limit.

Note: You cannot use FAKOs as a representation of your FICO score in any way shape or form. Your FAKO could be 740 and your FICO be 550. They just don't correlate. So place pull your true FICOS from here if you want to know your actual number.

I wouldn't go on an app frenzy. Choose 1 store you are interested and make purchases at, then apply. Target store cards typically have horrible limits, but are fairly easy to get approved for. 

[Creditaddict]

I happen to feel that applying all at once would be better then just picking 1 if you really want all of those cards.

But apply in order = Nordstrom, Macy's, Best Buy, and last Jared.

and apply in store for nordstrom and Macy's, online is fine for the other 2 

[voidman]

call back after 3 days and you will get to know if the application was approved or not by their automated system.

good luck. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your comments.  I shall do that, I still do not notice any activity as an inquiry on my reports for TransUnion nor Experian.  However, I'm quite happy since my PIF has not yet been reported to TU nor to EQ which should bump my scores by at least 30+ points - I hope! 

I will call back on Monday or Tuesday.  Cheers!

rebuilding_credit

FICO EQ 725 TU 623 FAKO EX 745

[Anonymous]

I never thought of this strategy creditaddict - it seems flawless!!!  I wish I would have seen your posting before. 

So I did get approved online for the BB MC (instant approval for $300 - huh???  Do not think it was worth the inquiry hit! I have heard that this card is easier to be approved for.  Can't seem to find yet which CB report was pulled. 

Also, did get approved for Jared in person for $2,000 (they told me that if I wish for more credit I can have it $2,600+) but I refused it.  Thinking of it now, maybe I should have taken their offer to improve utilization which is at 8% and they pulled EX.

Looking forward to apply for Nordstrom and Macy's in store.  My fiance has the Macys Star Rewards Visa (grey card) and has me as an authorized user.  Should I tell them about this so they may grant me with a better CL?  I am concerned about Nordstrom, perhaps they are inquiry sensitive despite the score - hoping they will not pull TU, it seems to be my lowest score.

[Anonymous]

Be careful with Norstrom.  I'm pretty sure Creditaddict told you to do it in the order with Nordstrom first because they are very inquiry sensitive and the rest aren't as picky.  If I were you, I'd wait at least 6 months before apping to Nordstrom.  They really prefer no inquiries at all within the last 6 months, but of course, everyone will have a slightly different experience.  Congrats on all the recent cards and good luck to you with the future apps!

[Anonymous]

Update: I decided not to apply, per your suggestions to Nordstrom.  I did, however, applied for instant credit for Macy's store and was approved for $1,200 and a Club account.  They asked me if I wished to apply for Macy's VISA but "chickened out" and said the store credit was just fine.  Should I have requested a Macy's VISA as well?  Would you assume it would have been considered another hard inquiry or just a soft one?

By the way, what is the 7/24 automated approval hotline to check, please if app was approved or not, please?

Finished with my app spree!  Thanks - what a rollercoaster ride of emotions!  Thanks to this board and your personal contributions!  :-)              

[Anonymous]

Update: Found the automated answering system telephone number (1-800-955-9900) on the forum and was approved for a CL of $4K!!!  I started doing the chicken dance!  I think the automated system mentioned an APR of 15% - rather high I should day but it's my first CC with such a CL.  Been a long road of discipline and hard work.  Thanks everyone for your kind assistance - cannot express enough my appreciation to you!

If I can do it so can you!  Recall my credit score was 2 years ago as high as 524.  Thanks to my FICO Family

[creditwherecreditisdue]

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@cdtotten wrote:

Your pre-approval letter did not guarentee any type of instant approval. It was merely a letter sent to you because you met certain criteria they were seeking when they sent those out in bulk. A soft inquiry was performed in order to pre-qualify you, but the application for new credit will always result in a hard inquiry. They were not obligated to approve you. Hopefully the card gets issued.

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Almost always. I did open two new bank card accounts in 2009 without any hard INQ's. My last hard INQ was in December 2008.