How do I make it to a Citi AAdvantage card?

[CreditJim]

I fly American Airlines a lot and would like a credit card that helps my accumulate miles faster. I would use it for all purchases and pay in full each month.

At the moment I have (in chronological order):

- Capital One Platinum Mastercard ($300 limit - never used anymore)

- Capital One Platinum Rewards Mastercard ($750 limit after Credit Steps)

- SWACU Credit Union Visa ($1000 limit)

- Capital One Spark Visa Business ($750)

- Apple Barclaycard (just got an automatic 6 month CLI from $1200 to $2200)

I currently have a zero balance (reporting as 2% utilization still). I have an auto loan I've been paying for the past 2 years with about $14k remaining, never missed any payments. I have an old baddie (BoA charge off of around $800) and this seems to be hindering my score from raising much above 600. I only have fako scores at the moment. I haven't applied for anything in the past 6 months, since I was accepted for the Apple Barclaycard, however I do still have 11 hard inquiries from past credit card applications and a couple of rounds of auto loan applications. So that's been putting me off applying for anything else and trying to carefully plan my next application, which I really want to be one of the Aadvantage credit cards. A few of the hard inquiries should be falling off at the end of 2012, so I was thinking about applying for one of them in January. I make at least $7k per month.

Any advice about this plan would be greatfully received. The credit cards I have aren't much use to me but I want to make sure that I have a good chance of getting the next one I apply for, and the only one I'm interested in is the Citi Aadvantage. I used to have their Aadvantage Debit card which was great as I earnt thousands of miles a month from my regular purchases...

[bettercreditguy1]

Any way to pay the charge off? It will remain on your report for 7.5 yrs. If paid it would look better . Otherwise, you need to garden, let your credit history grow for a while.

[CreditJim]

I could pay the charge-off, if this will help me. I've been gardening since April, haven't applied for anything since then. Just wondering what it'll take now to start seeing my scores go up so I can get the card I want.

[CreditJim]

I've just pulled my proper credit reports via annualcreditreport.com and I noticed this in the soft enquiries:

PRM-CITI CARDS CBNA 09/06/12, 08/02/12 

I do get a lot of letters from Citi about the AAdvantage card refferring to how I used to be their customer with the AAdvantage debit card and inviting me to apply. Looked like they have been looking at my report. Does this make it more likely I'd be approved or does it really not make a difference? 

[injustifiiable]

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@breedo wrote:

I've just pulled my proper credit reports via annualcreditreport.com and I noticed this in the soft enquiries:

PRM-CITI CARDS CBNA 09/06/12, 08/02/12 

I do get a lot of letters from Citi about the AAdvantage card refferring to how I used to be their customer with the AAdvantage debit card and inviting me to apply. Looked like they have been looking at my report. Does this make it more likely I'd be approved or does it really not make a difference? 

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Were the letters you got pre-approvals? If you still have them, I'd apply. You can use their offer code to apply through their site. Couldn't hurt...since it's a PRM inquiry they like something in your file and will most likley approve if it hasn't changed that much since the inquiry.

[CreditJim]

Pretty certain they weren't pre-approvals otherwise I would have applied as this is the card I really want. They just looked like standard letters inviting me to apply. They also softed my Experian on 08/14/2012. Nothing should have changed as I've just been gardening for the past 6 months.

[injustifiiable]

Even with "invitations", they still have the whole "pre-screened" box on the bottom which means they softed you (which they did). If you still have the offers, I'd try it. :-)

[CreditJim]

I always shred all the offers I get but seeing as I get a letter from Citi about once a week I may try it next time. I still can't help thinking I might be better off waiting until I've somehow dealt with BoA, allowed a few hard inqs to drop off at the end of the year and my accounts to age a bit more might be wise.