@djrez4 wrote:I think what enharu is saying is that they're looking for an actual relationship. Putting any amount of money into the account and then immediately expecting it to help with a credit card application is unreasonable. If you were to show Chase that they were your primary bank - payroll direct deposit, billpay, etc - for a period of time, they may factor it in. I banked with Chase for almost ten years before applying for a card with them and demonstrated a gradual increase in income. That makes them more comfortable. The simple act of opening an account with them does nothing.
Think of it like any other relationship; if you demonstrate commitment, you build trust.
+1.
I don't think much of initial Chase denials these days, if it's still denied on Recon (multiple attempts) that's something else. Chase appears to want us to prove our commitment, not sure why, seems to waste a bunch of CSR time and therefore money for Chase but I digress.
My credit report is still much like my old Texas transcript to which a buddy once stated: "You actually want to show that to someone?"
When I called in for my recon, I listed a few reasons why I felt I should be given a chance, and the major one that the CSR picked up on was that I'd been using Chase as my primary depository institution (direct deposit from my primary employment, and incidently they get everything else too these days) for six months, and that there was a relationship there. The other, was that I hadn't had anything awkward in the last year, which he claimed did show some rebuilding.
I experienced something similar with Amex, though it's entirely possible I didn't look as ugly to them as I thought, but the string of approvals has left me not finding out my EX FICO score from them... oh well, I'll live 
.
End of the day, if you want to be in a position of getting concessions (approvals) from any lender, you need to be in a position to demonstrate you are going to make them money in some form or fashion. That either means having a pretty score and an elevated spend, or it means prioritizing a few institutions with what financial resources you do have.
In my case I went after Amex, Chase, USAA, DCU and simply broke it out in the following fashion:
- Amex: bulk of my spending
- Chase: deposits
- USAA: insurance and a secured CD loan
- DCU: secured card, auto loan goodness
I'll re-evaluate this post mortgage (has to be done as my financials are going to suck after that), and really one could mix and match this any way they wanted, but that's how I approached it and so far it's working.
If you really want the Freedom, having a checking account will (at least, for the time being) help with your points accumulation. If you have a Freedom and checking acct., you get a 10% points bonus at end of the year. This is the replacement for the 10/10 program - no idea how long it will last.
