@Anonymous wrote:
To those that have this card, please speak about your experiences with it. Do you have to be in their area in order to qualify for their card? Are you required to switch cash back categories every quarter, or can you keep them the same throughout the year i.e. Groceries at 3% year round? What did your FICO and credit history look like when you applied for this card? Would you say that this is a starter card?
Like longtime_lurker said, it's a great card but not a great starter card. Take it from me, I have the Huntington Voice and completely agree with this statement.
The Huntington Voice is a great card to get once you've have a couple of other cards that maximize the main essential categories or the 'bread and butter.' These categories would be like "un-categorized", "Gas" and "Groceries." The Voice is a specific category card, for example, I use it for the "Restaurants" category. Though like I said, I got the Voice after I had Capital One Quicksilver One (Un-categorized), Freedom (Rotating Categories) and Barclay's Sallie Mae (Gas, Groceries and Amazon). I got those in that order, but also didn't know about the Sallie Mae at the time and had a banking relationship with Chase Bank at the time. I'm going to tell you to get a card that can be used for "Un-categorized" or everything. Some cards that come to mind would be Capital One Quicksilver (1.5%) or the Citi Double Cash (2%).
You didn't provide your FICO score, so I can't say which one you would have the best chances of getting. I know this is your first card, but have you had loan history in the past? Other things besides credit cards can impact credit scores. I'm guessing since you don't have an account if you don't know if you are in their "footprint" (I'll get more in depth on this below). Relationships with the bank you are applying for can increase your chances of approval. I will agree with longtime_lurker again and say that Huntington is conservative. I got a $1,500 starting limit and I was certainly surprised as I expected more than $2,000. However, the Voice does have the lowest APR out of my portfolio at 14.99%. I provided a snapshot of my credit file when I was approved for the Voice. I believe if you apply, you would be approved but I couldn't guarantee that.
If you are dead set on this card, and no one can change your mind than I'll give you the 'skinny' on the Voice. Huntington, like many banks have what's called a "footprint" and you must be in that "footprint" to do business with that bank. I provided a link at the bottom of the post which shows if you are in their qualified region. Again, like longtime_lurker said, you don't need to apply for the categories every quarter like Discover's It and Chase's Freedom. One downside for the Voice would be that Huntington is not granting CLIs at this time (Is this still true?). So if you are looking for a card to grow with you, this might not be the one. I believe Huntington plans on allowing card holders in the future to request a CLI, however that last I heard they haven't started this.
The Voice has a horrible iPhone application and an equally as bad website. The iPhone application is 'plain jane' and you can only do the bare minimum. You can see your rewards points, but you can't redeem them via mobile application and must redeem via website. Same with paying the credit card bill, which is very inconvenient. The website is hard to navigate and often I find myself clicking everything on the page to find what I need. Recently Huntington provides your EQ score which is a great feature. I don't care much weather I have a VISA signature or a regular VISA. I don't care if it's a Platinum MasterCard or if it's a World MasterCard, but some do. Typically with most credit cards you need a larger CL to have the World MasterCard. It seems with Huntington that you get the World version no matter what, but don't quote me on this. Just an observation.
I believe I touched on everything about Huntington's Voice card. The rewards greatly outweigh any negatives I talked about. It's not an exciting card, but if you use it to it's potential it can be on of the most helpful for taking advantage of a specific category. I also provided below the "Huntington Voice Approved!" thread I made that discusses why I chose the Voice. Hopefully all of this can be helpful to your decision making.
Huntington Bank Footprint: https://www.huntington.com/regions/
My "Huntington Voice Approved!" Thread:http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Huntington-Voice-Approved/td-p/3665706
Snapshot of data before I applied for the Huntington Voice.
Age: 22
Annual Income: $16,000.00
Monthly Rent/Mortgage Payment: $0
Credit Karma FAKO score: 752
TU FICO credit score: 746
Credit Card Utilization Rate: 0%
Percent of On Time Payments: 100%
On Time Payments: 34
Total Payments: 34
AAoA: 1.00
Oldest Open Credit Line: 1.75 years
Total Accounts: 3
Hard Credit Inquiries: 3
Derogatory Marks: 0
Current Credit Cards
Capital One
Platinum
Credit Limit: $750
Card issued: Jan/2013
Chase Freedom
Credit Limit: $3,000
Card Issued: Jan/2014
Sallie Mae Barclaycard
Credit Limit: $2,000
Card Issued: July/2014
