New Member Seeking Advice

[Anonymous]

CSR would be amazing to have...but I am a househusband, my husband only travels for business, and is far, far to cheap to let me spend $450 on a AF. So for now, I just dream about the CSP.

[Anonymous]

---

@SecretAzure wrote:

Don't go Capital One...please just apply for Amex BCE or ED. Amex likes thin profiles and these have no AF. They grow really fast and it'll make your profile look great in about a year when your limits multiply by a lot. Capital One is awful and avoid AF if you're not sure how your spend will change once you start working. Once you see how much you spend on dining/gas/groceries then you can make a more educated decision on whether or not other AF cards will be worth it for you. CSP is a great choice.

Good luck!

---

I have to agree with this suggestion. With Cap1 you can get stuck with a rebuilders profile. My secured platinum will probably never graduate; and all my prequals for Cap1 continue to have very high apr's even with 750+ scores.

As far as Amex, they have treated me very well. Started with BCP at $5500 with sub 700 scores; and in 18 months with on time payments and 3 auto cli's, it's now $15500. 

Since you already know how the BCP works, I think you should apply for it. With your scores you have a great chance for approval. And even if you get a low starting limit, it can grow quickly (check out the Amex 3x CLI thread). 

Regarding Chase, with two recent denials, they are spooked and need some time to cool off. I'd say give it a year, garden your new card(s), on time payments/pif. Let your scores stabilize after the new accounts, denials, and inquiries.

Work on getting cli's when eligible. When considering the CSR, Chase likes to see that you're resposible with other cards in the $10000 limit range, as the CSR is minimum $10000 limit. Check the Chase prequals periodically and keep track of the specific APR's; if they're high (above 19-20%) just wait and garden until they get lower. Once the rate for the CSP gets into 16-17-18% range, you're more likely to qualify for CSR.

Good luck and remember, credit is a marathon, not a sprint.

[SecretAzure]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@SecretAzure wrote:

Don't go Capital One...please just apply for Amex BCE or ED. Amex likes thin profiles and these have no AF. They grow really fast and it'll make your profile look great in about a year when your limits multiply by a lot. Capital One is awful and avoid AF if you're not sure how your spend will change once you start working. Once you see how much you spend on dining/gas/groceries then you can make a more educated decision on whether or not other AF cards will be worth it for you. CSP is a great choice.

Good luck!

---

I have to agree with this suggestion. With Cap1 you can get stuck with a rebuilders profile. My secured platinum will probably never graduate; and all my prequals for Cap1 continue to have very high apr's even with 750+ scores.

As far as Amex, they have treated me very well. Started with BCP at $5500 with sub 700 scores; and in 18 months with on time payments and 3 auto cli's, it's now $15500. 

Since you already know how the BCP works, I think you should apply for it. With your scores you have a great chance for approval. And even if you get a low starting limit, it can grow quickly (check out the Amex 3x CLI thread). 

Regarding Chase, with two recent denials, they are spooked and need some time to cool off. I'd say give it a year, garden your new card(s), on time payments/pif. Let your scores stabilize after the new accounts, denials, and inquiries.

Work on getting cli's when eligible. When considering the CSR, Chase likes to see that you're resposible with other cards in the $10000 limit range, as the CSR is minimum $10000 limit. Check the Chase prequals periodically and keep track of the specific APR's; if they're high (above 19-20%) just wait and garden until they get lower. Once the rate for the CSP gets into 16-17-18% range, you're more likely to qualify for CSR.

Good luck and remember, credit is a marathon, not a sprint.

---

Give this man some kudos! All of this is great advice! In my Amex experience, I started low and quickly made my way to 9,100 (don't ask me why I chose such a random number) in 61 days. 6+ months later I was at 18,200. Now I'm at max exposure without POI of $25K for this card. Once this was established, Discover did not stop spamming my mailbox...nor did many others. I my lowest SL's I get now are above $7K and I'm happy with that. Amex grows fast and can give your profile a lot of depth behind that age.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for the replies and insight!

The CapOne card sort of bothers me because the rewards are so much lower than what I'm getting now on the Citi Double and the BCP (also has the AF which is annoying).

Should I even apply for a new card or just garden the Discover and get the CLI from them in 90 days? I see that Chase likes to see TWO non-AU cards before giving any, so if I was to apply for a card, would doing BCE or BCP even be worth it? I know a lot of people here recommended both, but isn't it counterintuitive to get off my AU BCP just to apply for my own and risk a hard pull/not even have a high limit? I ultimately just want to build a solid history on my own while also steadily increasing limits until I'm near the 10k minimum required for CSR.

Another note: most of my purchases are restaurants (like 70%, followed by groceries 29%), no gas, minimal other since I live in a big city. Travel will most likely soon become a decent sized expense as indicated earlier. I'm not sure if this changes anything, but it's probably clear why CSR is so alluring.

[Anonymous]

Me personally, I dont think applying for your own BCE/BCP is going to be counterintuitive. If you're willing to grow the Discover, why not grow the Amex as well? I can't speak for CLI's with Discover, in one years time it may only double or triple to $3k-$6k. With Amex, if you start with $1000; theoretically in two months you could triple to $3k, six months later triple to $9k, then six months later again get to $25k (and be in prime position for CSR).

Regarding the AU, it seems more and more lenders are disregarding AU's as actual credit experience; which could be why Chase denied your apps, and reason to get your own card.

Yeah the CSR is good for your situation, but it's probably gonna be a year or two before they'll consider you for an approval with a decent interest rate.

All that said, it's just suggestions; ultimately the decision is yours. I'm still figuring it out myself.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Me personally, I dont think applying for your own BCE/BCP is going to be counterintuitive. If you're willing to grow the Discover, why not grow the Amex as well? I can't speak for CLI's with Discover, in one years time it may only double or triple to $3k-$6k. With Amex, if you start with $1000; theoretically in two months you could triple to $3k, six months later triple to $9k, then six months later again get to $25k (and be in prime position for CSR).

Regarding the AU, it seems more and more lenders are disregarding AU's as actual credit experience; which could be why Chase denied your apps, and reason to get your own card.

Yeah the CSR is good for your situation, but it's probably gonna be a year or two before they'll consider you for an approval with a decent interest rate.

All that said, it's just suggestions; ultimately the decision is yours. I'm still figuring it out myself.

---

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, it seems like I'll have to wait at least a year to get the CSR. I'll have to read up on this whole 3x CLI thing Amex does. If that's true, then that's exactly what I want. I think you're basically spot on with your insight on AU. When I called up Recon (for both Freedom reject and CSR reject), the analysts basically told me that they discounted all of my AU experience, despite the accounts being GOLDEN. I know those accounts don't speak entirely for me, but I'm surprised the credit card companies can't assume with that sort of history from my parents (coupled with my income and scores) that I wouldn't be a worthy, low-risk candidate - kind of offputting tbh. I guess it makes sense on an aggregate level, however, that whatever statistical regression used for approvals/denials should discount AU candidates since they could have just piggybacked off someone they knew for a high score.

Oh well. I think I will garden the Discover for a few months, apply for a CLI (I hear no hard inquiry for approval!), and then apply for the BCE. I would apply for the BCE now, but I've just gotten bit too many times by rejections and it's gotten me scared, haha.

[HeavenOhio]

Gardening is always good. In the meantime, you can do your homework.

AMEX is cool for a number of reasons. They're not too quirky, and you're likely to get into decent limits either sooner or later.

Of course, at some point, you'll want to look at Visa/MasterCard because of acceptance issues with Discover and AMEX.

With Chase, you kind of need to reserve a time slot. They like to see a bit of a history. But they don't like a lot of recent history, i.e. you don't want their 5/24 rule (5 new cards in the past 24 months) to automatically exclude you.

If dining is a priority, you might want to take a look at the new CapOne Premier Dining Rewards card. And don't laugh, but the AARP card from Chase is another option. You don't have to be an AARP member, and people in their 20s have that card.

I'd probably give Chase a rest for a while simply because of the information you already have on hand. CapOne may be a decent option, but because the Premier Dining card is brand new, there isn't a lot of data on what it takes to get approved. I'd assume that we'll know a lot more over the coming months.

[Poppa]

You should know that there are pre approval sites you can check before applying. Chase, Amex, Citi, and Capital One have trusted prequal sites. There are others out there though some are not as reliable. They will save you some wasted inquiries. Good luck with your choices.

[Anonymous]

+1 on deciding to garden and read up on things.

Another option if you dont really want the BCE, is to check the prequals in about 6 months or so and reapply for the Freedom or Freedom unlimited. This will get your foor in the door with Chase and help with a CSR approval later. The FU will be easier to get than the regular Freedom because Chase makes more money off the FU; since people sock drawer the Freedom for 2 or 3 quarters if they wont spend in the rotating category for those quarters.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

+1 on deciding to garden and read up on things.

Another option if you dont really want the BCE, is to check the prequals in about 6 months or so and reapply for the Freedom or Freedom unlimited. This will get your foor in the door with Chase and help with a CSR approval later. The FU will be easier to get than the regular Freedom because Chase makes more money off the FU; since people sock drawer the Freedom for 2 or 3 quarters if they wont spend in the rotating category for those quarters.

---

Thanks for the advice. Is 6 months a good time to wait to apply again? I'd ultimately want the Freedom since the category rewards would be nice to pair with a CSR in the future (also because my AU Citi Double is still better than the FU). 

A few more questions:

It seems like even though I have a high score and perfect history as an AU on VERY seasoned accounts with HIGH limits and LOW utilization, that Chase still doesn't take any of this into consideration - is that normally the case with AU accounts? Additionally, do my AU accounts factor into my overall AAoA and my own personal limit (ie. take the total limit divided by the number of AUs and primaries on one cc account) or is this the wrong thinking? I'm erring on the side that this ISN'T the right thinking, and thus (correct me if I'm wrong) when a lender looks at me, they really only consider the accounts where I am a primary (at this stage just the 1.5k limit on the Discover It) and that's it. If this is the case, I guess I have a much longer way to go before even being  considered for something like the CSR. How soon after gardening at my point do people tend to get approved for the Freedom? And in my case, would the other card suggestions people have made in this thread (BCE, BCP) be better cards to App before going after the Freedom again?

Sorry for the multitude of questions; just trying to fully understand where I stand and prevent wasted HPs in the future.