Overall Utilization before applying for Chase Freedom

[Anonymous]

Hello!

My husband started a new job in November and his income was a bit lower than the old job at first, plus we didn't get our usual Christmas bonus, so we put Christmas shopping on my credit cards. I have been paying them down and now they are all officially down to about 20%, if not lower, but some of them haven't updated on the reports yet. I have been waiting for the reports to reflect the new balances before applying for a Chase Freedom card, but just for giggles this morning I did the pre-qualifier on the website and both the Freedom and the Slate came up for me.

My current overall utilization on my reports are 52% EX and 28% TU and EQ. Those will go down more once all of the accounts update, there are a couple of stragglers. My next update will be next Friday for TU and EQ (this is through Credit Karma) and on the 20th for EX (through credit.com). 

My question is, should I keep waiting for the overall utilization to go down before applying? I've been reading here in the forums that the Chase pre-qual is pretty rock solid for approvals, but I'm wondering if my overall utilization will make an impact on the line of credit that they extend to me. I'm not overly concerned about the APR as I don't plan on carrying a balance on this card since that would pretty much negate the rewards I would get for using it. 

Thanks so much!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello!

My husband started a new job in November and his income was a bit lower than the old job at first, plus we didn't get our usual Christmas bonus, so we put Christmas shopping on my credit cards. I have been paying them down and now they are all officially down to about 20%, if not lower, but some of them haven't updated on the reports yet. I have been waiting for the reports to reflect the new balances before applying for a Chase Freedom card, but just for giggles this morning I did the pre-qualifier on the website and both the Freedom and the Slate came up for me.

My current overall utilization on my reports are 52% EX and 28% TU and EQ. Those will go down more once all of the accounts update, there are a couple of stragglers. My next update will be next Friday for TU and EQ (this is through Credit Karma) and on the 20th for EX (through credit.com). 

My question is, should I keep waiting for the overall utilization to go down before applying? I've been reading here in the forums that the Chase pre-qual is pretty rock solid for approvals, but I'm wondering if my overall utilization will make an impact on the line of credit that they extend to me. I'm not overly concerned about the APR as I don't plan on carrying a balance on this card since that would pretty much negate the rewards I would get for using it. 

Thanks so much!

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Welcome to the forums.

i would definitely wait until the lower balances show up on your reports.  You probably would still get approved but it can definitely affect your credit limit if your current utilization is too high..

[tonyjones]

I'd drop it down to around 10% before app'ing, do you have any derogs? what's your FICO score?

[Anonymous]

I have one small collection from 2009 and some late payments in 2008 on two accounts and then everything else is good. My husband and I are rebuilding credit, my oldest accounts are a vehicle loan and secured credit card that are 2 years old (though the auto loan is only showing as 1 year old because we refi'd through our credit union after one year for a better rate. I don't even see where we financed it in the first place through Wells Fargo in 2013. Other than that I have Care Credit, Best Buy, Walmart and Amazon store cards. The oldest of those is from May 2014. 

My scores are TU 660, EX 723, EQ 649 (I think this is the Vantage 3.0 score, it won't show me any other score like it does for TU through Credit Karma).

edited to say: Walmart shows my TU FICO score as 676

[Anonymous]

As for the cards, one is currently showing at 15% usage, one at 7% and the other two haven't updated yet. The Care Credit card has a zero balance. 

Of the two outstanding, one will be at 28% usage and the other will have a zero balance once they update. 

[Anonymous]

Ok, doing the math for overall usage based on my limits for each account and the balance, I'm currently at 11%. I have those couple of baddies from 6 years ago but all of my current accounts have no late payments. And I have some good accounts from the same time frame as the bad. 

So definitely a good chance of a decent line of credit from Chase if I wait for the reports to catch up? I want to make sure I do this right and get my credit back on track!

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that anything coming from CK is pretty useless. I'm sure you've already read that here before based on your detailed comments. But I'm seen some scores lower than the real deal and some higher coming out of CK. Bottom line for me is I treat it as FAKO and only really looked at it for relative changes. Now that I am subscribing to full 3-CRA scores and reports, I don't bother with them any more.

Good luck on your Chase Freedom though...let us know how it goes when you pull the trigger. They are next on my list.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Keep in mind that anything coming from CK is pretty useless. I'm sure you've already read that here before based on your detailed comments. But I'm seen some scores lower than the real deal and some higher coming out of CK. Bottom line for me is I treat it as FAKO and only really looked at it for relative changes. Now that I am subscribing to full 3-CRA scores and reports, I don't bother with them any more.

Good luck on your Chase Freedom though...let us know how it goes when you pull the trigger. They are next on my list.

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Yes, I've definitely realized that. My scores are all over the place depending on where I look, and whether they be FICO or FAKO. For instance, the 723 through credit.com is a 645 through credit sesame and I believe they both pull from Experian if I'm not mistaken. But they seem to average out to a number that I'm happy with based on where I am and how far I've come. My report was crap a few short years ago and with patience and perseverence over the last two years I've gotten things started and on a track that I'm very happy with. Anyway, I have been looking more at the reports themselves and less at the score and trying my best to make sure all of that looks good. The only reason my utilization is as high as it is is because of our circumstances at Christmas with the husband's new job and using the cards for shopping. I would have never let them get so high beyond that. And I did it with a plan in place to pay them down quickly, which I have. I just need the reports to update to reflect that now! 

My ultimate goal is to get a couple of regular cards as I only have one right now and the rest are store cards. The one I have is a secured card through my bank, which was my step off point for getting my credit back in check. Once I get approved for a couple others then I will go into the garden for awhile. 

I will definitely update when I do apply. I'm hoping my reports have the lower utilization reflected when they update next week, being patient has been hard!

[Anonymous]

Well, it took a week and a half to finally update, but I got approved! Chase Freedom for $2000 and Amex ED for $3000! I'll go post in the approvals too, but just wanted to update. Thanks for the advice guys!