which Citi card?

[kwazziee]

which Citi card would i have the best chance with according to my credit profile? my EX FICO score was 680 back in Nov 2011.  here is a rundown of it.

Credit cards I own:

Cards / Credit Limit / Member Since / Balance

CapOne Plat / 3,000 / 10/08 / 1500

CapOne Plat / 750 /  7/10 / 0

Chase Ink (business) / 5000 / 10/11 / 4000

Chase Freedom / 11,700 / 4/07 / 7,000 (authorize user)

Amex Green card / NPSL / 11/11 / 0

Credit History:

Long story short, was irresponsible and damage my credit big-time. Has gotten my act together since 2006. Apply for capOne in Oct 2008 and was approve for 1000 CL. Started building my credit since then. Never went on any app spree.

All negatives are no longer on my CR except for one which was a rental termination thingy back in 2006. This negative will fall off this December.

I am very interested in a Citibank card but don't know which card is the easiest to get in with Citi. Any suggestion by looking at my profile? Thank you.

[OptimasPrime]

I'd try to get you util down down before you app for anything else. Without calculating anything it looks like your sitting around 60%|which is really keeping your scores, and subsequently, your chances for approval down. The Chase Freedom that your an au on is really doing you more harm than good with the balance that high. If it's possible get util below 20%(>10 would be ideal) and your fico score will shoot up over 700. If you can do this you would have a good chance of approval for a forward/dividend/thank you preferred type of card.

Edit-I reread your post. what did your utilization look like at the time you last received your fico score? If your utilization was significantly different when you last received a fico score the above advice may not be as applicable.

[kwazziee]

My ultilization was a little higher. I have paid off about $2000 since.

Thes Chase freedom card is my wife which she added me after we got married. Should I have her remove me from her account. Would this help raise my score. My concern is the AAoA. Let me know what you guys think.

Another question, regarding my Chase Ink card. Since this is my business card it does not show up on my regular CR. Does this affect me if I app for new cards? thanks.

[OptimasPrime]

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@kwazziee wrote:

My ultilization was a little higher. I have paid off about $2000 since.

Thes Chase freedom card is my wife which she added me after we got married. Should I have her remove me from her account. Would this help raise my score. My concern is the AAoA. Let me know what you guys think.

Another question, regarding my Chase Ink card. Since this is my business card it does not show up on my regular CR. Does this affect me if I app for new cards? thanks.

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-You're right about the aaoa since if you ask her to remove you (I believe that) any history with the card will most likely be removed from your file entirely. The cl on the freedom is also extremly high relative to your own personal limits. It kind of stinks that the balance is so high on it because other than util, it is extremely beneficial to have in your file.  If/when you app for citi having the freedom on your report would almost certainly get you a higher starting limit than you would receive if it were not on your report.

Does your wife have any other high limit cards with low/no util that she could add you on? If she has something comparable to her freedom that dosent have a large balance on it that would be ideal for fico scoring purposes.

-As far as whether or not your business card shows up in your personal file I'm not 100% sure. You could sign up for a free service like credit karma or credit sesame to get a look at your report and see whether or not the business card shows up on there. you also get one free pull a year from each of the three bureaus so you could check those as well to get a definitive answer.

[kwazziee]

Thank you for your response. My wife does have many other cards with very high CL and no balance. Reason why we have a high balance on this Chase Freedom card is because she use this card for everything. This is the only card she really use.

My Chase Ink does not show in my regular CR, this is a fact because I have pull a free credit report from freeannualcreditreport.com and it does not show.

Thank you for your response again. It has been very helpful.

[OptimasPrime]

Does your wife pay in full or come pretty close to paying in full each month? It seems like that is the case, and if so I see no reason to ask to be removed as an au since she can manipulate/reduce the balance on her card that gets reported to the credit bureaus each month, by paying down the card before the statement closing date

I copied and pasted I post I made a few days ago which explains this concept.

All that you need to do to keep util down is submit a payment before the statement closing date.

Say for example you spend 2k during your first statement period and your statement closing date is august 30. On or around august 26-27 just send them a payment for about $1500.this 1500 would post before your closing date and chase would report your balance as 500 instead of 2000.

Then pif the rest after the closing date

The only real difference in your case is that the numbers are a bit higher. Your wife would only need to do this for you in the month that you plan to app for citi since utilization is generally only a factor when applying for new credit.

Also, it would still be beneficial to be added as an au on any old/high limit/low util cards that your wife has as long as these accounts do not have any history of late payments. The goal behind this would be for citi to see all of these high limit accounts on your credit report and base your starting cl more off of them than your own personal accounts, or at the very least exceed your own current highest personal limit