@aludian wrote:Hi everyone,
I am interested in starting a credit card account with Chase, more specifically the Hyatt card. I have been getting some offers in the mail in regards to this specific card so I wouldn't mind starting with that since I do actually stay at Hyatt. Some background from me: Awesome!
I just applied for a Citi card last month and they pulled an Experian report. According to it I have a 730 score. It's the key factors that adversely affect my score that concern me. Good job!
- Your credit report shows that proportion of balance to credit limits on bank.national or other revolving account is too high. (Not a big deal since your overall utilization is 4%)
- Your credit report shows proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high. (I don't think this is a big deal personally.)
- Length of time since the most recent account opening is too short (I suppose this is not a huge concern).
- Your credit report shows too many inquiries in the last 12 months. (I can address this as well.) 4 isn't bad at all.
Now needless to say they gave me the highest interest rate tier for the Citi card, however I'll always pay it off and not carry a balance. I may be able to negotiate the interest in a few years, it's just the principal behind it. Perhaps I should not be too hard on myself since this is the first time I have opened an account with Citi ever. I have 4 inquiries, 2 of which will be dropping off completely in April. The other was for a personal line of credit that I transferred a balance to at a great interest rate, I opened this in October of this year. The balance is $5,600/$6,000, and I will be rapidly paying it down. This is the last remaining portion of an unemployment debt I have been paying off. Is the personal line of credit the one they are talking about? Yes.
I now have 3 cards total. Two with Barclays, and they have been really great. They also have my oldest card which is 6 years 5 months. My AAoA is 2 years 3 months. I have no baddies at all, I've never missed a payment in my life and my credit card utilization is roughly 9% on a single card and 4% across all cards. One Barclay card I applied for and recieved in April of this year, they were happy to give it to me, at the lowest interest rate tier. (This also recieved an auto CLI from $5,000 to $10,000 in October.) Great job!
My question is, should I wait 6 months or a year before I apply? in 6 months, Citi should be giving me an auto CLI, two inquiries will be gone completely and the personal line of credit should be darn near paid off. Or wait a year, and definitely have the line of credit paid off and a longer AAoA? Chase I am sure has different criteria the Citi. I can only think of one more card I'd like to get maybe towards the end of next year then I am pretty much finished apping for a long while and I'll let them all age. (If you want to make sure that you would get a larger CL then wait. If you just want to get it for the sign up bonus and to use the card then go for it.. you should be approved. Are your other credit bureaus just as pristine with inquiries as well? If so, I might lock experian just to keep your score on EX from going down more with another inquiry and plus the other CB probably has a higher score as well since it might have less inqs. )
Lastly, I know after 1 year an inquiry no longer affects your report. Do lenders look at it this way as well? or only after 2 years when it is completely gone? and do lenders look at the AAoA in full? or do they look at, "hey, this guy has had this Barclaycard for 6 years and 5 months and never missed a payment. We should be good." I think they will not be too worried at all with your stats!
You seem like a very consistent, conscientious client to have!) I think lenders only will look at it if you go to a manual review. I think yes with closer inspection the consensus would be you are not actively seeking a great amount of credit cards and are therefor less risky, IMO.
Thank you very much
Hope that helps!
