New to USA - Chase Sapphire Preferred

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone, 

I'm sure in the past their have been a number of similar questions to mine. Basic background, I moved to the US (NYC) Feb 2016. I've had two secure credit cards for 6 months and I just got my Fico scores. Experian Fico score 8: 711 the other CR's are higher. Bankcard Fico score 8: 706

When I signed up for my fico they had to manually verify me. I think my social is so new and I don't have a driving license. Based on user feedback of those who have applied for Chase Sapphire Preferred, my scores seem to have a fair chance of being approved. When I use the chase see if you're approved for pre-qualified offers, they state they couldn't find one for me.

My main question is do they use old data for the pre-approved checks because it's not a hard check of your credit report? 

Does Chase use Fico Score 8 or an oldeer version does anyone know? 

Also any feedback on if you think I'd get approved for this card would be appreciated. My concern really is more length of credit history and although this makes up 15% of your score wheather they analyse the data in a different way. 

Thanks,

Andy 

[Anonymous]

Chase seems to take credit history into account more. I would way more, open some more cards, and get a larger limit before applying. Also having a previous relationship with Chase helps. When I applied at around 6 months AAoA, with close to all 700s, I was still denied for the CSP.

Edit: What are the limits on your 2 secured cards? Do you have a bank account w Chase? Chase has an internal risk system that they use. 

[Anonymous]

When I applied for my FU, I had one card. My secured Disco was 7 months old at the time and I had an Ex FICO 8 of 742. Chase does use their own scoring formula, however, not a FICO score. They seem to weight your other limits and length of history heavily.

CSP has a $5k minimum SL. They're not usually the first to give somebody a big limit, and I'm assuming your secured cards are both sub-$1k. Unless your income is extremely high I think you're probably wasting a HP.

If you're looking for a travel card, check if you have any Cap1 prequals, specifically the Venture One. If you want to share what you're looking for in a card, the community can help you with that too 

[Anonymous]

Thanks both comments. I currently have $4k on one secure card and $1.5k on another.

I think what I'll do then is go in to chase and open a joint checking account with my wife, we've wanted a physicsl bank in the city anyway. She's also adding me as an authorised user on her citi bank card which she's had ten years. We do have a HSBC CC with 15k but they didn't report me as an authorised user to the credit bueros sadly.

I travel a lot for work plus flying back and forth to London to see family. I essentially want the best card for travel, with low/medium fee. Be nice to get some free flights and the offer for chase sp seems to be the best in terms of opening offer etc. We'd like flexibility as we tend to shop around with airlines. I've had cap 1 offer their everyday card or something like that but I'm not a huge fan of them as a brand.

Thanks,
Andy

[Anonymous]

Sorry 4K and 1.5k limits not balance. I have 0 balance as I pay off as I use.