Few questions about how to get approvals

[bmis42988]

To start off, here's my backstory. Back in '06 I got hired for a great job with great pay at 18 years old. Opened 2 cap1 CC's which were the only people to approve me at the time. I also was living in my own apartment. After roughly 6 months, I got laid off from my job where i was originally making about 3400$ after taxes per month and with 6 months still on my lease, I had only saved up enough to cover bills for 3 of them. I got unemployment, which was 122$/week - a huge difference from what I was originally making. So, I used my cap1 cards to buy food and repair my car which nearly maxed one of them. Being that I had no experience in virtually any field, finding a job was near impossible. The cards eventually went into collections, and a year later in 07'-08' I settled for less than full.

Fast forward to present day. I have a good job, and have been there for more than 4 years. I currently have 2 cap1 CC's again, and 1 GE card with around 1300$/1500$ combined usage and an auto loan for 16k with 10k left on it. I have excellent payment history - haven't been late since 07'. AAoA is just over 2 years. My TU is currently 632, and my EQ is 629. My ultimate goal ever since reading so much good about the Chase Freedom, is to get approved for it. A friend of mine has it and has nothing but good things to say about it and chase customer service. They've waived late fees when he forgot to since he told them "his internet was down". They even gave him a soft pull CLI from 1500 to 2.6k after having it 6 months, and all he said is he wanted to use it to pay his bills and PIF each month. I tried back in OCT '12, got denied, called recon, got denied, call credit specialist, and got denied again. It was very disheartening to get denied 3 times in a row lol. My scores were all also under 600 at the time as well.

I was wondering with my taxes coming back (only about 1k) and since it's spring break I'm getting a lot more hours at work, would it be better to PIF on all 3 cards over the next month and sock drawer them until I can get approved for the freedom? I'm not sure how to go about it, even after reading the forums for a while. People have had luck with scores lower than mine, in worse situations as well. Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

[Henchman21]

It's always better to PIF.

Do you have derogs on your cr?

[bmis42988]

Just the two charge offs. They fall off next year.

[Henchman21]

The charge-offs are paid, right?

I would research what people are commonly getting denied for with Chase. Not sure if Freedom is the easiest card to get in with. I would definitely pay TWO of those cards in full and leave 1-9% on the other one. Let it report as such before applying. That should bump your scores up a little bit as well.

I think you have a chance at least for approval. Be sure to do your research. There may be another card that is easier to get approved with, then you've at least got your foot in the door.

[bmis42988]

Yeah the charge offs are paid. I don't think chase has a lower card than the freedom, maybe the slate? I'm not 100% sure, but chase offered my friend, who has limited history, his card - he never applied.

Thanks for the advice, I'll get my two paid down and keep a low util on the last. Also, I sent an email to capital one's exec offices last night, and they called me this morning and offered me rewards on both, as well as putting in a manual request for a CLI to 1500$ on both. She said she would get back to me in 3-4 days, so we'll see how it goes. If they do approve me, it might just be worth it to stick it out with capital one.  I'll def wait a few months and make sure my util is at a good percentage before wasting a hard pull.
 
Edit: grammar

[bmis42988]

Just got off the phone with cap1, they denied my CLI's but approved me for rewards (lol). Kind of sad about that, but I'll try my luck with letting them sit in my sock drawer and gardening and waiting to app for the freedom.