topic Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover in Credit Card Approvals

Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 17:33:07 GMT

Hello everyone..

I am somewhat new. A little over a year ago my credit was absolutely horrible....im talking in the 490 range. However over the past year and being much bettwe with payments, having a collection taken off, and paying off a credit card I am now finally at 620.

Anyway I unfortunately have to go in for dental work and although i have dental insurance most of the work isnt covered and it is imperative I get the procedures done. I was really iffy about whether to go with Carecredit or to apply for a new card. Currently I have capital one with a cl of $750 and only $200 on it which they still have not increased, a capital one that is restricted with $300 which has a $0 balance, and two store cards which have more than half available.

The dentist was able to see about care credit without a hard inquiry and it did not give an approval which would require me to have it check my credit but i didnt want to take a chance. I tried pre qualify sites and saw offers with good approval oods such as credit one and first premier which i wanted to avoid and an offer fro mchase and discover. Anywho, I remember applying for chase less than 2 years ago and being denied so i didnt want to take a chance so i tried to go with discover.

I applied with discover and was told to call a number to finish documentation. I was put on a brief hold and was told i was approved for 1,200. Although not much I am relieved that it was worth getting the inquiry and hopefully i made a good choice choosing discover over carecredit.

Does anyone have any tips and such on how often discover increases credit limits?

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 17:53:57 GMT

If I was you, I’d probably give CareCredit a shot. What’s the worst that can happen? - a denial and a HP, neither of which are that big of a deal. I’ve seen reports of them approving those with low-ish FICO scores.

You might get a higher limit with CareCredit and they also offer promotional 0% financing.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:18:55 GMT

Welcome to Dico World 🥳
And, yes, I'd probably still try Care Credit in your situation.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Dave4fun — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:58:58 GMT

I wanted to give you a BIG CONGRATULATIONS on your new Discover card! That is wonderful news! You will get cash back and build that into a nice credit line as time goes by. I am sorry to hear about the dental work though. I do wish you all of the very best and enjoy your new card!

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:45:35 GMT

Disco is a great card to have, I like mine so far. I paid my bill on a Sunday afternoon and payment posted this morning. Much faster then my cap1 cards.

As far as a CLI goes with disco there's info all over the place on that subject, it's sporadic as can be

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

calyx — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:25:55 GMT

Congrats on the new Discover!

Add me to the list encouraging you to go for CareCredit as well.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:35:30 GMT

But isn't it bad to have the multiple inquiries? I ask only because I already have 2 before this Discover one.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:39:16 GMT

Inquiries fade over time so the small hit will not last forever.
You may lose a few points but if it puts you in a more stable position then it's worth it for the long run.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:39:48 GMT

Inquiries are a necessary evil if you’re trying to obtain credit. I wouldn’t advocate racking up a ton of them, but I wouldn’t sweat 3 or 4 by any means.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

FireMedic1 — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 21:16:43 GMT

Same SL I had on my first card. Smash the CLI button 61,91, and 121 days. If you get a auto CLI. Go for the DD. Worked on both my cards when new. Now the first card is over 12g's in just over 2 1/2 yrs. Go for the CC card.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

DaveInAZ — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 22:30:31 GMT

@AnonymousCongrats on the Discover approval, 620 is actually a fairly low score for a Discover approval.

I'm kind of surprised on the encouragement here to also go for Care Credit. The Discover comes with 1 year 0% APR and you'll get 2% rewards for your dental expenses, 1% now & 1% at year end bonus match. Care Credit has 0% rewards and is deferred interest for 3-6-9 months that can come back to bite you if you don't budget and pay the balance before the deferred interest hits.

And there's a thread in the Credit Card forum from a person who had a Synchrony furniture store card with deferred interest. He had a $990 balance on the account with $3k credit limit and they balanced chased him, lowering the CL to $1k. Now the deferred interest will hit tomorrow and then he'll also get hit with fees for being over the CL, from just the deferred intetest timing.

Synchrony deferred interest gimmicks catch a lot of folks, stick with Discover.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 23:22:29 GMT

@DaveInAZ wrote:
@AnonymousCongrats on the Discover approval, 620 is actually a fairly low score for a Discover approval.

I'm kind of surprised on the encouragement here to also go for Care Credit. The Discover comes with 1 year 0% APR and you'll get 2% rewards for your dental expenses, 1% now & 1% at year end bonus match. Care Credit has 0% rewards and is deferred interest for 3-6-9 months that can come back to bite you if you don't budget and pay the balance before the deferred interest hits.

And there's a thread in the Credit Card forum from a person who had a Synchrony furniture store card with deferred interest. He had a $990 balance on the account with $3k credit limit and they balanced chased him, lowering the CL to $1k. Now the deferred interest will hit tomorrow and then he'll also get hit with fees for being over the CL, from just the deferred intetest timing.

Synchrony deferred interest gimmicks catch a lot of folks, stick with Discover.

That’s all well and good, unless the OP’s dental procedure is more than $1200, or close enough to it that utilization would be maxed on the card.

CareCredit is still a good option for a higher limit.

Don’t let one person’s horror story of Sync scare you away. Plenty of people have cards from them and have no issues.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

DaveInAZ — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 23:54:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@DaveInAZ wrote:
@AnonymousCongrats on the Discover approval, 620 is actually a fairly low score for a Discover approval.

I'm kind of surprised on the encouragement here to also go for Care Credit. The Discover comes with 1 year 0% APR and you'll get 2% rewards for your dental expenses, 1% now & 1% at year end bonus match. Care Credit has 0% rewards and is deferred interest for 3-6-9 months that can come back to bite you if you don't budget and pay the balance before the deferred interest hits.

And there's a thread in the Credit Card forum from a person who had a Synchrony furniture store card with deferred interest. He had a $990 balance on the account with $3k credit limit and they balanced chased him, lowering the CL to $1k. Now the deferred interest will hit tomorrow and then he'll also get hit with fees for being over the CL, from just the deferred intetest timing.

Synchrony deferred interest gimmicks catch a lot of folks, stick with Discover.
That’s all well and good, unless the OP’s dental procedure is more than $1200, or close enough to it that utilization would be maxed on the card.

CareCredit is still a good option for a higher limit.

Don’t let one person’s horror story of Sync scare you away. Plenty of people have cards from them and have no issues.

Well, dental procedures are done over time, so hopefully they can spread them out and pay them off for Discover to give credit limit increases.

Oh yeah, I have 3 Sync card, Lowes. Walmart & Paypal Cashback MC, and I've even done a deferred interest purchase on Lowes. But I still say that their deferred interest gimmicks catch a lot of people short & hit with huge interest. And I think a CC with 0% intro is a lot safer, if you're caught short at least you only pay interest going forward.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 01:29:06 GMT

This is just my 2 cents but I'd also say you should try for CareCredit. I got my Disco card last year at the end of July, SL 1,500 and my EX score was 650. Prior to that I was denied so congratulations on getting in the door with them! My card did not offer intro APR due to my score at that time. As far as CLI, they surprised me with auto CLI 2 month later. I was too scared to ask them myself at that time. Now I'm up to 4,500. I asked for CLIs 3 times since then. I was using my card a lot but always PIF after the satement cuts. I have Walmart, JCPenney and Amazon Prime with Synch and I haven't had any issues so far. Synch is good with giving you bigger CLIs when you call their backdoor number. I found it here on this forum. My JCPenney went from 750 to 2500 since last October and I've used that card maybe twice. CLI request was done through love button on their site. My walmart went from 500 to 4000 since last July. Amazon went from 1500 to 5000. CLIs for both were requsted by calling backdoor number in Octber and then in March of this year. I applied for Disco and Synch cards at around the same time.

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 02:07:05 GMT

@FireMedic1 wrote:
Same SL I had on my first card. Smash the CLI button 61,91, and 121 days. If you get a auto CLI. Go for the DD. Worked on both my cards when new. Now the first card is over 12g's in just over 2 1/2 yrs. Go for the CC card.

Out of curiousity what was your outcome after 61 days?

and was this litterly 61 days after opening the account?

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 02:49:55 GMT

What’s shocking is i literally been asking capital one for increas elimits the past three months and being denied so it was nice getting a card with a higher limit. I’m just worried if i apply for CareCredit i will be back right at the start of 600

Unfortunately my dental procedure will be about $500 and that’s only because i have to wait for half right now but at least i can pay for that and then 5 months later when the bone heals and it’s time for an implant I’ll have paid it off and maybe then apply for care credit

I guess I’ll be saving money in food being that I’ll have a temporary tooth

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 03:10:40 GMT

I also have no luck with Cap One CLI's. I think I'm just going to quit asking them on the bucketed cards since I recently got approved for their Savor card. Will probably combine my QS with Savor to increase Savor's limit after 6 month since I have no use for the QS anymore. Looks like Cap One has become pretty strict on their CLIs for the starter cards. YMMV

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

ChargedUp — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 03:18:02 GMT

I'm on the "Use Discover, get 2% back and enjoy the 12 months/0 interest." side. Care Credit can be handy if you have regular medical expenses (or even veterinary bills) but there's no reward giving besides the deferred interest. If you garden for a year and treat your Discover right, you'll be in a better situation for a new card when your zero interest promo is up and you could land another zero interest promo card and/or SUB that could be very inticing

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 14:54:09 GMT

So I just took the plunge and tried to apply for carecredit and pretty sure my heart was beating 1000 miles a minute. I did not put an amount because I was worried I would be declinded if i did. I was approved for 1500, which isnt much, but I figured by the time the implant time comes I will be able to maybe have more.

Lord my poor credit score is probably thinking "you finally got me to the 600s and now im going to go back....Aghhh

Re: Was deciding between CareCredit and Discover

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 15:33:37 GMT

Congratulations! Try to call back door number in couple of month when your implant comes and I'm sure they'll grant you a CLI.